MEMOIR 



OF 



Major Jason Torrey. 



OF 



BETHANY, WAYNE COUNTY, PA., 



BY 



REV. DAVID TORREY, D. D. 




SCRANTON, PA : 
JAMES S. HORTON, PRINTER AND PUBLISHER. 

188=;. 






(a e) 

J rjrouqr) vcirjs frjaf drew frjeir blood jrorr; wesferrj carir) 
Two rjurjdrca vcars arja more, my blood, rjalr) rurj, 
lrj rjo polluted course Jrorr) ©ire fo ©oi). 



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Copyright, 1885, 

BY 

Rev. David Torrey. 



7- 9^1 £>C 



PREFATORY NOTE. 



Jason Torrey, popularly known as Major Torrey, 
was one of the earliest settlers in Northeastern Penn- 
sylvania, and was efficiently and conspicuously asso- 
ciated with the first half century of its material and 
social development. 

He reared a large family, and the majority of his 
descendants has remained in the vicinity of the 
scenes of his laborious and fruitful activities. 

But neither he, nor any of his progenitors, in so far 
as we know, nor any of his descendants, until within 
a few years, have devoted any attention to the collect- 
ing or preserving of any comprehensive genealogical 
information concerning either the earlier or later 
generations of the family. Whatever work had 
been done in this direction, consisted merely of 
limited family records, made for separate house- 
holds, and many of these were found to be very 
incomplete and fragmentary. 

In the autumn of i860, John Torrey, son of Jason 
Torrey, visited Williamstown, Mass., the place of the 
latter's birth and early life, and while at the house of 



4 Prefatory Note. 

a cousin, who resided on the Homestead, he learned 
that in the garret there were many old letters which 
Grandfather had received from his sons after their 
leaving the parental roof, and had carefully preserved. 
He arranged with his cousin to select such as were 
from Jason or his wife, or from his brother Ephraim, 
who also removed to Bethany, that he might bring 
them home with him. A large package of letters was 
thus obtained, written at various dates, from 1793 to 
the time of the decease of our grandparents. 

These letters contained a great amount of inter- 
esting and valuable historic information, which it 
would have been impossible to obtain from any 
other reliable source. 

A careful perusal and re-perusal of these letters, 
and of Father's early diary, led John Torrey to de- 
cide, a few years ago, to endeavor to trace out the 
ancestry of the family; and he undertook a series of 
comprehensive and systematic investigations and in- 
quiries, which have been prosecuted with an amount 
of labor and a degree of expert skill, which no inex- 
perienced person would imagine to be necessary, 
and which have resulted in bringing to the knowl- 
edge of the now living members of the family, a dis- 
tinct and unbroken line of descent for very nearly 
two centuries and a half on this continent; extending 
back to within twenty years of the landing of the 
Mayflower, and for a hundred years still further 



Prefatory Note. 5 

back in England — viz: to the time of a William Tor- 
rcy, who died at Combe St. Nicholas, in Somerset 
County, England, in 1557. 

These inquiries have also revealed, incidentally, 
many items of interesting and gratifying information 
concerning persons of excellent worth, and some of 
broad and honorable distinction, who were descended 
from the first William Torrey, of Weymouth, Mass., 
but outside the line which leads to Jason and his 
descendants. 

While the statistical results of these inquiries have 
been embodied in a tabulated Genealogy, which will 
be printed for the family, the diary and letters of 
Major Torrey, above referred to, and the memories 
of him thus freshly awakened have led to the printing 
of the following brief Memoir, as a tribute of grateful 
affection and reverence from his surviving sons, as a 
means also, of bringing some knowledge of his life 
and character to, and preserving it for, his younger 
and his future descendants, and in the belief that 
many of the citizens of the county, especially those 
of more advanced years, will take a pleasant interest 
in reading these reminiscences of the county's early 
history. 

The work of finding and selecting the document- 
ary material for this memoir has been done by the 
oldest, the expense of putting it in the form of a 
book borne by the second, and the whole arranged 



6 Prefatory Note. 

and prepared for die press by the third and young- 
est of Major Torrey's surviving children. 

This work has been one of Qreat delight to these 
remaing sons — with filial pride, as well as with filial 
affection, they present this brief memorial sketch of 
their honored Father for the use of his descendants 
and kindred, and of such other persons as may feel 
an interest in the character it represents, or in the 
events it records. 

Honesdale, February, 1885. 



MEMOIR OF MAJOR JASON TORREY. 



i 

The name, Torrey, is evidently an Anglicised 
form of the Spanish word Torre, which originally 
meant a Tower, but became the patronymic of many 
Spanish families, and the name often occurs in Span- 
ish records and dispatches. 

It is probable that our English ancestry came or- 
iginally from Spain, though we are not aware of 
owning any "castles" in that country at the present 
date. 

Nor are we able to learn much concerning our 
ancestors in England, but through the kindness of 
our kinsman, Mr. H. A. Newton, of Weymouth, 
Mass., we obtain the results of examinations made 
of the official records of Somerset County in that 
country. 

These records show : 

i That the will of William Torrey, of Combe St. 
Nicholas in said county, was proven on June 18, 
1557, and Thomasyne, his wife is named as his Ex- 
ecutrix. His "children" are mentioned but not named 
in the will. 

2 That the will of Philip Torrey, son of the above, 
was dated August 31, 1604, and mentions his son 
William and daughter Dorothei, and names Marga- 
ret, his wife, as Executrix. 



8 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

3 That William Torrey, son of the above Philip, 
was living at the date of the death of Jane, his wife, 
who was buried on the 27th April, 1639. 

4 That the will of Philip Torrey, son of the last 
named William, was proven on 27th June, 1621. 
His wife Alice is mentioned as Executrix, and the 
will mentions three daughters, Annie, Mary and 
Sarah, and four sons, William, James, Philip and 
Joseph. The will of Alice, 4 the widow, is dated in 
1634, mentions the same seven children, by name, 
and refers to the previous death of the daughter 
Mary. 

From the provisions of these last two wills it is 
evident that at the date of the father's death in 1621, 
all the children were minors and some of them in 
early childhood. 

We, also, have reliable information that William 
Torrey, eldest son of the last named Philip, born at 
Combe St. Nicholas, in 1608, was married to Agnes, 
daughter of Joseph Combe — the name being sug- 
gestive of the probability that she belonged to the 
family which gave the place its name. 

This William Torrey had a son, born at Combe 
St. Nicholas in 1632, named Samuel, and another, 
born at the same place in 1638, named William, and 
then a daughter, Naomi, born at Weymouth, Mass., 
December 3, 1641, that place having, meanwhile, be- 
come his residence. 

He is known to have been at his home in Encr- 
land in the early part of 1640. So that he must have 
migrated to America during the Summer or Autumn 
of that year. 



Early Colonial Branches. 9 

It is also known that his brother Philip came in 
the same ship with him, and that he found his home 
in Roxbury, Mass., where he died in 1686, leaving 
no children in so far as we know. 

Also that the brother James was settled at Scituate, 
Mass., in 1640, and there were born to him five sons 
and five daughters. He was a military officer and 
was killed by an explosion of powder, at Scituate, 
July 5, 1664. It is found that after his death his 
brother William, at Weymouth, became guardian of 
at least two of his children (Jonathan and Mary) who 
grew up in his family at Weymouth, with the very 
singular result that, after more than two hundred 
years, the numerous Torreys, now living at Wey- 
mouth, are all descended from James, though Wil- 
liam was the permanent resident of that place, and 
reared a large family there; while the only descend- 
ants of William now there, bear other names. 

From James was descended the Rev. Charles T. 
Torrey, widely known as the " Martyr Torrey," be- 
cause some courageous attacks of his upon the sys- 
tem of Southern Slavery were decided to be viola- 
tions of law, and he was thrown into a Baltimore 
prison and died there not far from 1850. 

Still the other and youngest brother, Joseph 
Torrey, was a land owner at Weymouth in 1643, but 
settled afterwards at Newport, Rhode Island. The 
records of that town show that Joseph Torrey was, 
in 1 66 1, appointed on a committee to raise subscrip- 
tions for sending Roger Williams and John Clark to 
England, on business relative to the charter of the 
town of Newport, and that in 1670 Joseph Torrey was 



i o Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

appointed on a commission "in regard to entrance 
made into our jurisdiction by some people of Con- 
necticut, and of their carrying away some of the in- 
habitants prisoners." He died in 1675. 

Thus we have positive information that our Eng- 
lish ancestor, William, who came to this country in 
1640, and was commonly designated as Captain 
William Torrey, had three brothers, residing in and 
near Weymouth from 1640 onwards. 

II 

The said William Torrey, it will be remembered 
brought two sons with him from England to Wey- 
mouth, both in their boyhood at the time of the im- 
migration. 

The older of these two sons, Samuel, became a 
man of marked distinction. 

He received his education at Harvard College, 
almost as soon as it became a college, and must have 
been one of its earliest graduates. 

He became a clergyman, and after preaching for 
a few years at Hull, was made pastor in 1664, of the 
church at Weymouth. 

It is interesting to notice, as a curiosity of this 
kind of literature, that this Rev. Samuel Torrey, in 
entering upon his pastorate at Weymouth in 1664, 
was the immediate successor of Rev. Thomas 
Thatcher, who, in 1670, entered upon his work as 
the first pastor of the "Old South" Church, of -Bos- 
ton, and from whom descended one Rev. Pet'e'r 
Thatcher after another for three successive genera- 
tions, and the grand-daughter of the third and last 
of these became the wife of Major Jason Torrey, of 



Rev. Samuel Torrcy, &c. 1 1 

Bethany, Pa., in 1816, and the mother in 18 18 of 
the writer of these lines. 

Harvard College was not a University in the 17th 
century, and had no theological department, and it 
is probable that the said Samuel Torrey pursued his 
theological studies, privately, at his home, with his 
pastor, Rev. Thomas Thatcher, and showed himself 
worthy to be his own pastor's successor, and thus, 
being "not without honor in his own country," he 
remained in that position to the end of his useful life. 

He was an eminent divine of his period, as is 
shown by the fact that he three times preached the 
annual election sermon, by appointment of the Gov- 
ernor and House of Deputies of the Colony of Mass- 
achusetts, and that he was twice elected President 
of Harvard College, but declined the position for 
reasons that do not transpire. 

His younger brother, William, who was our ances- 
tor, born in England in 1638, and brought by his 
father to Weymouth before he was two years old, 
was a conspicuous and influential citizen of that place 
during all the years of his manhood. 

Mr. Herbert A. Newton, descendant of the above 
mentioned James Torrey, now a resident at Wey- 
mouth, says that the name of the said William ap- 
pears, as selectman or member of important com- 
mittees on almost every page of the records of that 
town while he lived. 

He was also a member of the House of Deputies 
of Massachusetts Colony from 1642 to 1649, and 
again from 1679 to 1683, an ^ was d er k of that body 
from 1648 to 1658, and again from 1661 to 1666. 



1 2 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

As commander of the Weymouth militia he bore the 
title of captain. 

That he combined habits of abstract thought and 
metaphysical study with his eminent and successful 
devotion to practical affairs is revealed by the exis- 
tence, in the "Boston Public Library," of a book, en- 
titled, " Futurities or Things to Cornel'' of which he 
was the author, and which was published, in 1687, 
with Preface by Rev. Mr. Prince, pastor of "Old 
South Church." 

Thus it appears that on the score of private re- 
spectability and of public influence and usefulness 
and honorable public appreciation, our family had a 
noble and altogether promising beginning on this 
continent. 

We can but give credit in our thoughts, to the 
presumably excellent character of this man's imme- 
diate ancestry across the sea — inasmuch as figs do 
not grow from thistles. 

And we actually find in the church records at 
Combe St. Nicholas, in England, and Weymouth and 
Boston and Middletown in this country, document- 
ary evidence of the church membership and the bap- 
tisms of the children, so as to make it evident that 
our ancestors and the most of the members of their 
families were not only under the influence of Chris- 
tian principles and institutions, but, as individuals, 
they were Christian men and women and actively 
connected with the Christian Church — with the es- 
tablished church of Old England and the Congrega- 
tional Church of New England. 

As we turn to follow the fortunes of the descend- 
ants of Captain William Torrey, we find those in 



Rev. Joseph and Dr. John Torrey, &c. 1 3 

various lines of descent from him, who have fully 
maintained the honor he gave to the family name. 

Among- the later descendants of Captain William, 
who have won honorable distinction, are the late 
Rev. Joseph Torrey, D. D., deceased, who was a 
scholarly theologian, translator of Neander's Church 
History, and President of Vermont University ; and 
John Torrey, LL. D., the distinguished Botanist 
and Scientist, who has been for many years Superin- 
tendent of the Government Assay office in New 
York City. 

These two, together with a family of Torrey's now 
residing in New Jersey, in which the name of Wil- 
liam predominates, are descended like ourselves from 
Captain William's grandson John. But they are de- 
scended from this John through his oldest son, Wil- 
liam, and we through his third son, Samuel, as will 
appear in the following pages. 

Ill 

In the line of our descent from Captain William 
Torrey, we find that his third grandson, John, re- 
mained, as his grandfather had done, at Wey- 
mouth, and had seven children, of whom the third 
son, Samuel, removed to Boston so early in his life 
that he united with the Brattle St. Congregational 
Church there when he was 18 years old. 

In 1726 he was married to Abigail Snowden, at 
Boston, and to them were born, in that city, six chil- 
dren, the last in 1735. 

In 1736 he removed to Middletown, Conn., where 
he united with the Congregational Church, in May, 



14 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

1737, and where his wife died in July of die same 
year. 

In February, 1738, he was married to Martha 
Strickland, of Middletown, and to them were born 
five children, the last of them in May, 1745. 

Two or three months before the birth of this last 
child, the father, Samuel Torrey, at the age 38 years, 
set out with a force of New England Volunteers, on 
a military expedition against the French on our 
Northern" 1 borders, the occasion of which was as 
follows : 

Nova Scotia was occupied by the British, but the 
adjacent Island of Cape Breton, with the fortified 
town of Louisburg, was held by the French. 

In the Spring of 1744 a military force from the 
latter place, attacked the British settlement at Cun- 
seau, at the Eastern extremity of Nova Scotia, broke 
up the fisheries there and took eighty men prisoners, 
and kept them at Louisburg during the following 
Summer, after which they were sent to Boston on 
parole. 

Encouraged by the reports of these men concern- 
ing the weakness of the defences at Louisburg, and 
exasperated by the fact that Louisburg was made a 
harbor for privateersmen from which to make raids 
upon our fishing interests along the coast of Nova 
Scotia, the Colony of Mass., decided to undertake 
the capture of the Island and its fortifications. The 
colonies of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania 
voted money to the aggregate amount of about 
10,000 pounds, and the New England colonies fur- 
nished the men to the number of 4,000 — -together 



Siege and Capture of Louisburg. 1 5 

with armed vessels sufficient for their transportation 
which were joined at Nova Scotia by four British 
armed ships from the West Indies. 

This colonial fleet consisting of 100 vessels, ar- 
rived near Louisburg, April 30th, landed a large part 
of their force and commenced a siege which con- 
tinued until the 17th of June, during which time a 
French ship of war with 64 guns, laden with supplies 
for the garrison, was captured by the Yankee fleet. 

On the 1 7th of June the fortress and the entire 
Island were surrendered to the colonial forces. The 
achievement of this capture was celebrated with great 
enthusiasm in England, and so important was the 
capture of Louisburg regarded, that the Lord of the 
English Admiralty said that "if Portsmouth, (the im- 
portant naval station on the British Channel) was 
in the hands of the French, he would hang the man 
that should give Cape Breton for it." 

Only 150 men of the Colonial force were killed 
during the siege, and 60 of these were killed in a 
brave but unsuccessful night attack upon a battery 
situated upon a small island in the harbor, and fur- 
nished with 30 large guns, but which was afterwards 
silenced a,nd reduced by a land battery constructed 
on a neighboring bluff. 

A garrison of Colonial troops was left to hold and 
protect the newly acquired ■possession, and '"ten 
times as many men died of sickness'" as had fr lien 
in all the fighting. 

Among these was our ancestor. Samuel Torrey. 
according to a record made at Louisburg by Rev. 



1 6 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

Adonijah Bidwell, chaplain of the fleet, in his diary, 
as follows: 

"Lieut. Torrey died on the lyth of Sept., IJ45!' 

Louisburg figured quite conspicuously in subse- 
quent history for a time, and some curious historical 
coincidences are associated with it. It was peacefully 
restored to the French in 1748, and by them strongly 
fortified, but was captured again in 1758 by an army 
of 14,000 men (largely from Massachusetts) co-op- 
perating with a considerable fleet commanded by 
General Wolf, who afterwards took Quebec, and Gen- 
eral David Gordon, grandfather of the famous "Chi- 
nese " Gordon, was killed in the latter siege. 

At the battle of Bunker Hill the same old drums 
and many of the same troops were employed as at 
Louisburg, and Chinese Gordon's grandfather on his 
mother's side (Enderly) furnished, by rental, the 
ships which brought the tea that was thrown into 
Boston harbor, in the midst of the memorable riot 
that was one of the immediate causes of the breaking 
out of the war of the revolution. 

IV 

The death of Lieutenant Samuel Torrey, at Louis- 
burg, left his wife Martha at Middletown, a widow, 
with nine children, the youngest of whom, a girl 
named Martha, was born after the father left for the 
war. 

Two of these fatherless children, the one William, 
an infant of 15 months when his father went away, 
and the other John, not yet four years old at that 
time, were afterwards apprenticed, the former to a 



Parentage and Birth. 1 7 

shoemaker and the latter to a blacksmith. But 
soon after becoming of age ( 1 766) they took their 
trades with them and located on adjoining lots of 
land in Williamstown, Mass. 

The elder of these, John, was married about 1768 
to Ruth Tyrell, of Milford, Conn., and they were 
blessed with twelve children, all born in Williams- 
town, after which (1804) he sold his "place" and re- 
moved to Richfield, N. Y., though some of his de- 
scendants are still living near the old farm in Wil- 
liamstown. 

The younger brother, William, the shoemaker, is 
our progenitor and was the father of Jason. He 
married Hannah Wheeler, of Williamstown, April 
13, 1 77 1, and they remained on the homestead farm 
as long as they lived. 

The aged mother, Martha, who had been left a 
widow with nine children by the death of Lieutenant 
Samuel Torrey, at Louisburg, spent the last years 
of her life at Williamstown, and had her home, alter- 
nately, with these two sons who had been her care 
in their helpless and fatherless childhood at Middle- 
town, and were now glad to provide for her comfort 
in her old age. 

We now come to the time of Jason, with whom a 
new departure originated, inasmuch as he led the 
way for a portion of the family to find their homes 
in what was then the almost impenetrated wilder- 
ness of Northeastern Pennsylvania. 

Jason was born at Williamstown, June 30, 1772, 
being the first born child of William and Hannah. 
He had four brothers and one sister, whose names, 



1 8 Memoir of Major yason Tor re y. 

in the order of their ages, were, David, Josiah, Sam- 
uel, Mary and Ephraim. 

The home in which they grew up together was 
pleasantly situated in the South part of the town, be- 
ing sheltered under the " West Mountain ;" from the 
lower and sunny slopes of which the farm fronted 
the East with the towering and massive hights of 
Greylock always in view in that direction. 

It was a sweetly quiet and picturesque spot, with 
broad outlooks upon surroundings of rare beauty 
and quite uncommon grandeur. 

The boys assisted their father on this farm and be- 
came familiar with all that range of work, and had 
access, in Winter, to the common school of their 
district. 

About all this part of the history of the family we 
know absolutely nothing in particular, except as we 
are traditionally informed that a young girl, named 
Lois Welch, came into the household to assist the 
mother in her work, but was more a daughter than 
a servant, and became to the mother what Ruth was 
to Naomi, and to Jason what Ruth was to Boaz, as 
will appear when we proceed to use the material 
furnished us for a more particular history of Jason 
and those closely associated with him. 



V 

About three miles from the home thus described, 
at the centre of the town, a brick building fo Hi- 
stories high, was completed in i 79 1 , designed for a 
grammar school, and English free school, and was 



Academic Studies and First Diary. 1 9 

called the Williamstown Academy. Its first term was 
opened in October, 1 79 1. Two months after the 
opening- of this Academy, when he was 19 years old, 
Jason entered the School for twelve weeks instruc- 
tion. 

In 1 793 the institution was incorporated as a col- 
lege, and has since been known as Williams College, 
the old Academy building being what is called West 
College. 

Jason made good use of his twelve weeks in that 
Academy, for in his diary for December 25, 179 1, he 
writes : — 

/ studied arithmetic four weeks, then learned the 
art of surveying; I gave the rest of the time to the 
study of grammar. 

We print the words in italics in order to empha- 
sise the suggestion of energy and efficiency that is 
in them. The meaning probably is that he studied 
grammar during the whole quarter — for four weeks 
simultaneously with advanced arithmetic, and for the 
remaining eight weeks with trigonometry and sur- 
veying. 

The above statement constitutes his first entry in 
what was evidently his first diary. The book con- 
sists of two sheets of unruled foolscap paper, folded 
into square form and stitched, but not covered. On 
the first outside page are the two parts of his name 
across the top, with a not very successful attempt at 
ornamentation between, and the word Journal in 
handsome coarse-hand letters at the middle of the 
page, and the figures 1791 carefully printed under- 
neath. 



20 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

The opening of this diary seems to have marked 
a turning point in his life. He began to take prac- 
tical views of the future, and feel the responsibility 
of it and lay plans for it. Life began to assume 
tangible shape before him, and he was taking hold 
of it as a thing upon which he must act and to which 
he must give direction and character as the way 
should be opened for him, or he should be able to 
open it for himself. 

Life began to assume importance in his eyes, and 
therefore he began to gird himself for it and to make 
record of its events in this diary. 

His daily activities ceased to be regarded by them- 
selves, but were viewed as connected with the long 
future, and therefore record was made of them, not 
for other eyes, at all, but for his own future reference 
and use. 

His diary was meagre at first, but growingly full, 
in proportion as his hold upon practical affairs and 
projects grew broader and stronger. 

And this process was not slow after he had fairly 
entered upon it. His horizon widened rapidly, and 
his faculties were quickened and energised by the 
indefinite breadth of his ea^er outlook. 

His twelve weeks work in the Academy had in it 
the vigor of far-reaching projects, and the sagacity 
of earnest purposes. His arithmetic and surveying 
were equipments for practical work, and his gram- 
mar was such finishing accomplishment as was pos- 
sible for him, to enable him to do his work hand- 
somely as well as accurately. 



Teaching and Traveling. 2 1 

Then he must earn some money to start out with. 
And so there follow six months of work on a neigh- 
bors farm, and three months of teaching. 

And now at the age of 20 the project of going to 
the "new country," west of the Hudson River, as- 
sumes the form and substance of a fixed determina- 
tion, and in April, 1793, he makes a trial trip — walks 
to Albany (40 miles), to prove himself as to his 
ability to "travel," and is back at his home on the 
third day, with five dollars of his hard earned money 
gone. He must learn to "travel" at a cheaper rate 
than that, and he does so, as we shall see. 

On the fifth day of the next month, having collected 
what he could of the money that was due him, and with 
eleven dollars in his pocket, he sets out to "travel 
the country," as he expresses it; i. e. he started for 
that indefinite "West," which seemed more remote 
and unknown when it extended to Lake Ontario and 
the Gennesee River, than it does now that it ex- 
tends to the Sierra Nevadas and Puget Sound. 

He crossed the Hudson River at Kinderhook, 
passed through Harpersfield, Delaware County, N. 
Y., came to the Susquehanna River at the mouth of 
Ouleout Creek, near Unadilla, and kept down that 
river to Great Bend, where he arrived, "very weary/' 
on the 13th — eight days from home — and rested at 
the house of a Mr. Strong, about whom he had evi- 
dently known something before. 

Concerning the pecuniary cost of this journey he 
says in his first letter home, written from Mr. Strong's, 
May 15, 1793: 



22 Memoir of Major Jason Torrcy. 

" My expense, which amounted to 10 shillings and 
5 pence, L. M. for the eight days and 191 miles, 
was less on account of my provisions, having bought 
but two meals of victuals on my journey. But my 
feet felt the smart more than my pocket, being blis- 
tered near half over, but am again pretty well re- 
cruited." 

It was a strange homeopathic process by which 
his feet could be recruited as he kept on walking 25 
miles a day. 

The L. M. above, means " Lawful money" — i. e. 
Massachusetts currency, which was 3^ dollars to the 
pound, so that his "expense" for the eight days was 
just one dollar and seventy-three and a half cents. 

He rested at Mr. Strong's three days, and then 
proceeded over the hills to a point in the woods then 
known as Stanton Settlement or Stantonville, where 
he "concluded to stop." 

This place was in what is now the Town of Mt. 
Pleasant, and about a half mile South from the vil- 
lage of Belmont. Mr. Samuel Stanton was the first 
settler there. Two years before, in the Spring of 
1 79 1 he had come from Preston, Conn., and was 
clearing up a farm there, and by this time, a few 
neighbors around him were doing likewise. 

Making Stantonville his headquarters, and after 
spending a month in "viewing the country" (which 
was a heavily timbered wilderness, with settlements, 
here and there, 20 to 40 miles apart), and working 
just enough to pay for his board. Jason selected a 
lot of land for himself, and having hired a man for a 
week, and collected some provisions, which proba- 



Short Fanning — Wanted by Mr. Baird. 



-6 



bly consisted of flour and pork, he commenced clear- 
ing his land. 

Inasmuch as this spot is to be his home and that 
of his wife and children, for a few years, by and by, 
it is worth while to notice that it was situate about 
three and one-half miles East from Mt. Pleasant 
Village, and thus over four miles from Stanton's. 

It was apparently his intention, at this time, to 
clear for himself a farm at that place and build him a 
log house and fix his dwelling there. 

But how all this was delayed, and with what unex- 
pected experiences and disciplinary trials and edu- 
cating advantages to himself, it will be interesting 
now to notice. 



VI 

The slow and heavy work upon which Jason had 
entered with his hired man, in "lifting up his axe 
upon the thick trees" of the forest was interrupted, 
within a few days, by the appearance of a Mr. Samuel 
Baird from near Philadelphia, who itseems, was grand- 
father to Dr. Baird, now of the Smithsonian Institute 
at Washington. He was surveyor and agent for 
capitalists in Philadelphia, who had become owners 
of most of the lands in this Northeastern part of 
Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Baird wanted Jason's help, as a surveyor, at 
ten shillings a day, Pennsylvania currency, which is 
equal to one dollar and thirty-three and a third cents. 
These were tempting wages for a young man who 
had been leaching school a few weeks ago for six 



24 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

dollars per month, and who could now hire choppers 
for nine dollars per month. 

So it was less than a week after he had com- 
menced chopping that he laid aside his axe and took 
up Mr. Baird's compass and " Jacob staff " and went 
to Lackawaxen Creek, (probably near the Narrows), 
where he arrived and met Mr. Baird on June 30th, 
the very day on which he became 2 1 years old. 

After 15 days of surveying he returned to Stan- 
tonville, but had proved himself so helpful to Mr. 
Baird that it was arranged for them to meet again, 
a few days later, at Wyoming, from which place they 
went a hundred miles up the Susquehanna River on 
a surveying tour, which was completed on the 8th of 
September, when they parted, with an engagement 
to meet again at Stockport on the 14th of the same 
month. 

But Mr. Baird was summoned to Philadelphia and 
Jason was taken sick, soon after returning from 
Wyoming, and on the 21st of October, having ac- 
complished his first speculation by selling, for six 
dollars and a half, a horse which he had purchased 
for two, he started, with great delight for Massa- 
chusetts. But eager as he was to get home, he re- 
strained himself in order to see something of the 
State of New York, which was also inviting settlers 
from New England, and he wanted to be able to 
judge for himself and report at home as to the com- 
parative attractions and advantages of the two 
regions. 

So he followed the Susquehanna River downward 
from Great Bend to Owego, and thence crossed to 



Home again — New outlook, 25 

Cayuga Lake, and thence Westward to the Geneva 
Road, after which he turned Eastward through 
Oneida and Whitestown to the Mohawk, within 48 
miles of Albany, and then turned Southward to 
Cobas Kill, Schoharrie County, from which point he 
set his face directly homeward, crossing the Hudson 
at Albany and arriving at Williamstown November 
9th. He had been absent six months and three 
days, having traveled 900 miles "on expense," and 
bringing home with him 16 pounds, 19 shillings and 
one penny, as the net pecuniary gains. This amount 
in New England currency was equal to $56.68. 



VII 

Second Trip Westward. 

His pecuniary gains were easily reckoned and re- 
corded. But it was not so easy to estimate the value 
of his gains in the way of experience, and knowledge 
of the new country and of men, and breadth of out- 
look for himself. 

Especially did his connection with Mr. Baird 
prove inspiring and helpful to him, as we shall see, 
by introducing him to immediate business in the 
surveying line, and also giving him insight into the 
land operations in which Mr. Baird and other larger 
operators were engaged. 

However, the coming on of Winter in 1793 finds 
him at his father's house in Williamstown, and after 
a term of school teaching, he sets out again, near the 
end of March, 1794, for Mt. Pleasant, but on the [8th 



26 Memoir of Major Jason Torrcy. 

of April, goes from that place to Pottstown, Mont- 
gomery County, to meet Mr. Baird, and agrees with 
him for a Summer's work of surveying. This neces- 
sitates the purchase of instruments which cost him 
$34, and, returning with these to the Beech Woods, 
he enters upon his work on the 12th of May. 

Apparently this business and the prospects it 
opens to him do not prove entirely satisfactory, for, 
in the following November, he writes to his father, 
recommending him to come and see the country as 
far West as Cayuga Lake, thinking favorably of that 
locality for his own permanent home. 

This idea, however, is driven out of his mind by 
his receiving, just about this time, an invitation from 
Mr. Baird to spend the Winter with him at Potts- 
town. 

This invitation was accepted, probably with the 
expectation on the part of both Mr. Baird and him- 
self, that through the land office at Philadelphia he 
might become interested in the purchase and sale of 
lands for himself. What chances there were for this 
will appear from the following statement of the man- 
ner in which a large part of the land business of the 
State was carried on at that time. 

Warrants for unoccupied lands had been for sale 
at the rate of 26^3 cents per acre, and large bodies, 
comprising numerous adjoining warrants, were lo- 
cated by, and became the property of, individual 
capitalists. 

In 1 792 the Government of Pennsylvania, on the 
presumption that the most available of the lands had 
been sold, put down the price to 6 2 ( cents per acre. 



Speculators and Land Warrants. 2 7 

This afforded a fine opportunity for such speculators 
as had the enterprise to look up the valuable lands 
that were yet unpurchased. All that such a person 
had to do was to go to the land office of the State 
and pay £\o or $20.67 and receive an order, (called 
a "warrant") requiring the Surveyor General to 
survey to the holder thereof 400 acres, to be selected 
by the said holder from any lands still belonging to 
the State. 

The quantity of land in one warrant was limited 
to 400 acres, and two warrants could not at the same 
time be issued to the same applicant. 

But where a speculator desired to obtain several 
warrants.he had the applications signed by his friends, 
who immediately on so signing, also signed a "deed 
poll," conveying the right, under the application or 
warrant, to the speculator. 

In this way one man could obtain 100 or more 
warrants at one time. 

Jason had no capital for large operations, even at 
the low figures at which warrants were then selling. 
But there was a chance for him to discover the un- 
appropriated lands, and sell the results of his discov- 
eries to others who had capital, and make a good 
business of it. In order to do this he needed to 
be familiar with the maps at the land office as well 
as with the wilderness country in which the lands 
lay, and with which he was already becoming well 
acquainted. Therefore he accepted the invitation to 
spend the Winter of 1794-5 with Mr. Bairdat Potts- 
town, from which place he could have constant inter- 



28 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey, 

course with the land office and the land officers at 
Philadelphia. 

What projects and hopes arose in his own mind 
within a few months is indicated in a letter written 
from Pottstown, May 30, 1795, in which he says: — 

"I have discovered about 14,000 acres of vacant 
land, but at present can do nothing with it. As soon 
as the office opens again I expect it will at least bring 
a profit of half a dollar an acre, clear of expense." 

This was a brilliant prospect, at the outset, for an 
almost penniless young man, and he found it easy 
to count his fourteen thousand chickens that would 
be, when they should be hatched, worth half a dollar 
a piece. But he discovered already that a consider- 
able time must elapse before they would be hatched, 
and while waiting for the incubator to be put in op- 
eration by the opening of the land office, he nursed 
in his mind another project of enterprising magni- 
tude, for in the same letter to his father he says: — 

" From here I shall go directly to the Genesee 
country, and shall, it is probable, spend the Summer 
there. I shall purchase a large tract of land and get 
settlers upon it." 

This might seem a visionary project for him, with 
so little capital at his command. But the entire 
practicability of it is explained by the fact that, at the 
date of this letter, (1795) large tracts of land in the 
State of New York were being offered on very easy 
terms of payment, to enterprising men, who would 
contract for them, advancing very little money, and 
then retail them, in farms, to settlers, at such prices 
as to make- a handsome profit. Mr. Robert Morris, 



Personal plans and Providential leadings. 29 

for example, from whom the village of Mt. Morris 
received its name, had purchased four millions of 
acres, west of Seneca Lake, and was still holding 
large quantities, at this date, and seeking such meth- 
ods for obtaining settlers. Doubtless just this kind 
of operation was what Mr. Torrey was contemplating 
when he wrote the above letter. At all events this 
seems to have been with him a brief period of 
brighter hopes and more sanguine expectations than 
any that came to him for a long time afterward. 

But he evidently doubts whether his scheme for 
turning aside from his work on his farm and enter- 
ing upon this course of speculation will meet with 
approbation at home, for he justifies himself on this 
wise in the same letter from which we have been 
quoting : 

" I think it better to live a pilgrim life one or two 
years more, if by that means I can obtain a comfort- 
able living without being afterwards under the 
necessity to enslave myself. Not that I would wish 
to live without industry, but my constitution will not 
endure one-half the fatigue which some people un- 
dergo with pleasure." 

How much of "fatigue," whether with pleasure or 
otherwise, he found himself compelled to undergo 
after this, we shall see, presently. 

But, meanwhile, as though it had been the special 
design of Providence to give the young man the ad- 
vantage of a year or two of disappointment and trial, 
there was a closing, just at this time, as we have seen, 
of the land office, and no warrants were issued, and 



30 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

the whole business was at a stand-still, and nobody 
could tell how long it would remain so. 

But though he found the public land office closed 
at Philadelphia, yet he found business in the private 
offices of the land owners to whom Mr. Baird intro- 
duced him, making maps and drafts of their lands, 
and preparing papers connected with the titles and 
conveyance of lands. This was precisely the kind 
of education he needed, and it also made him known 
to these men, and thus, in both these ways, he was, 
without knowing it, preparing himself for his impor- 
tant life-work and paving the way by which that life- 
work should come to him. 

Moreover his intercourse with those Philadelphia 
men, many of whom were gentlemen of high social 
culture, and personal refinement, and broad acquain- 
tance with the world, elevated his tastes and widened 
his views of life and contributed to fashion him into a 
man of larger proportions and higher degrees of per- 
sonal improvement than he would otherwise have 
been. 

Little did he understand the value of the attain- 
ments he was making and of the advantages he was 
gaining. On the contrary he was overwhelmed with 
a feeling of disappointment, and often reproached 
himself that he was thus waiting for the land office 
to open, and hanging upon the beggarly hope of 
getting a Government appointment as deputy sur- 
veyor, instead of making a sphere and position for 
himself. 

His regret at allowing himself to be kept so long 
in an unsettled and chantrable condition was less on 



Motherly feelings — Long tour on foot. 31 

his own account than on that of the family at home, 
for whom, being- the oldest son, he felt a sort of pa- 
rental responsibility. To such a degree was this 
true that he says in his diary : 

"I am very anxious about the family at home, and 
my feelings toward them seem more like those of a 
mother than those of a son and brother. I am some- 
times ashamed of these womanly feelings, but fear I 
shall never get the better of them." 

In this state of mind and with no definite plans for 
the future, he left Philadelphia early in June, 1795, 
and spent the next two months in making, on foot, 
a more extensive trip than before, through Central 
and Western New York. He was not sure but the 
far richer lands of the Mohawk Valley, or the region 
of Cayuga and Seneca Lakes, ought to persuade him 
away from the rough and stony hills of Northeast- 
ern Pennsylvania. 

So he traveled through those parts of New York 
— stopping long enough, here and there, to earn 
some expense money, and to make some acquaint- 
ances — getting a taste of fever and ague on Cayuga 
Lake, where Ithaca now is, and seeing others shake 
with it in the Genesee Valley; also taking a North- 
ward sweep to Lake Ontario and Oswego, on his 
way Eastward, and reaching his home at Williams- 
town near the end of Summer. 

Remaining at home during the Autumn he was 
off again for Philadelphia in December. 

His stay at home, at this time, had been full of in- 
tense happiness to him, and he manifests much more 
feeling at going away than on previous occasions. 
Indeed he makes record in his diary that "it is with 



32 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

eyes full of tears and heart ready to break," that he 
takes his departure December 28, 1795. 

I cannot resist the conviction that it was during 
this visit home that he found himself in love with 
Lois, and probably declared his love and was accepted 
by her and became engaged to her. Only this will 
explain the intensity of his happiness during this visit 
and the warmth of his feelings on going away. And 
I imagine that a tender feeling toward Lois, of which 
he was only dimly conscious, had much to do with 
those "womanly feelings" towards the family of 
which he was writing in his diary a few months 
earlier, and which he found it so difficult to conquer. 

VIII 

Third trip Westivard. 

On reaching Philadelphia after several months ab- 
sence, he finds the land office still closed and the 
general land business of the State yet at a stand still. 

He finds employment, as before, in private offices 
— earning at times $1.50 per day, clear of board — 
and is much in the business counsels of the land 
owners, and has some social intercourse with their 
families, which is profitable to him, and also with 
some young men which is not so profitable, as when 
he records March 31, 1796: "Last evening I got 
with a sporting party who eased me of $6." 

A month later, May 3d, he makes this significant 
entry : 

"I hope I shall not be under the disagreeable 
necessity of drinking to please others but a few 
weeks longer." 



Disappointed and Perplexed. 3 3 

Fresh discouragement helps toward the fulfillment 
of that hope. May 28th furnishes this record: 

"It is now ascertained for certain that nothing can 
be done with the land, till the office opens, and no- 
body can guess when that will be." 

Moreover, while he was waiting" for something to 
turn up at the office of the Surveyor General, he 
was paying $6 per week for board and room, and 
was obliged to clothe himself for the company of 
gentlemen, and his occupation in connection with their 
business, though more advantageous to him for the 
future than he knew, was not remunerative for the 
present, and he was getting in debt. 

Therefore, arranging his affairs as best he could, 
he prepared to start for the woods, weary of waiting 
upon uncertainties, grieving over what he regarded 
as wasted years, and yearning to get himself settled 
in some permanent undertaking and into a home of 
his own. 

But where? For, on June 15th, he says: 

"I am much at loss where to settle — whether at 
Stanton's Settlement or in New York State." 

The failure of Mr. Robert Morris, about this time, 
so that his vast tracts of land in Western New York 
passed out of his control, and he could no longer 
offer inducements to enterprising men to take his 
lands and get settlers on them, may have been the 
reason why Mr. Torrey did not go to the "Genesee 
Country," as he was/just last month, proposing to do. 

On the other hand, his acquaintance with Phila- 
delphia men and the prospect of business growing 
out of that acquaintance, furnished controlling con- 



34 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

siderations in favor of settling in Pennsylvania, and 
he returned to Stantonville, meeting with an incident 
which was not of a character to lift a discouraged 
young man out of his low spirts. His journey was 
on horseback, and passing over the Kitatinny Moun- 
tain, through the "Wind Gap," he lost his road and 
came at evening, to Stroud's (now Stroudsburg) six 
miles out of his way. Spending the night there, he 
retraced his steps in the morning, and found his lost 
road, and, at 9 o'clock, was starting on his way for 
Bloomingrove, (some 40 miles), but darkness came 
upon him before he reached that place, and with the 
darkness came a portion of his journey in which 
there had been an extensive windfall, prostrating the 
trees, and many of them had fallen across the road 
and were still lying there. In attempting to go 
around these he became fenced in by the tangled 
trees, and found it impossible, in the darkness, to 
get back to the road, or to get anywhere, and, 
though he knew he was within a mile of Bloomin- 
grove there was nothing for him but to "strip his 
horse and lie down under a lo<j " and wait for the 
daylight. 

When the daylight came he found his horse was 
gone and he had to go back twelve miles for him, 
and did not reach Bloomingrove till noon. 

Next day he reached Stantonville in a very de- 
pressed state of feeling, but on going, in company 
with his neighbor, E. Kellooo-, the following morn- 
ing, to see his land, he was able to write, with some 
apparent cheerfulness in his diary: "I found it more 
to my notion than I expected." 



Marriage. 35 

On the very next day, by way of prepartion for 
chopping the big trees, he went to work for Mr. 
Mum ford, making the following record for August 
4th: "I will try to season my hands by mowing be- 
fore taking the axe." 

Two or three weeks from this time he comes down 
with a sickness which keeps him in bed for four weeks 
— a grievious experience of loss of time and heavy 
expenses, with poor nursing and hard diet, and ex- 
horbitant bills when he became convalescent. 

It is not strange that he wants to see somebody 
that has a heart for him, and as soon as his strength 
is sufficiently restored he starts for home where he 
is affectionately welcomed on the 12th of October, 
1796 — being now 24 years old. 

On the nth of the following January he is mar- 
ried to his beloved Lois, for whom he has not far to 
go, inasmuch as she is, for many years, a member of 
the family, as we have already noticed. Subsequent 
events show that he could hardly have done better 
however far he might have gone. She proved her- 
self the best and truest of wives and a very noble 
woman, as we shall see. 

Their marriage was very quiet, and the wedding 
party exceedingly select and exclusive. Either to 
avoid making a wedding, or because they wanted a 
little more stir on the occasion than would be in- 
volved in sitting at home to be married, or for other 
reasons, they drove across the state line into Pownal, 
the corner town of Vermont, and were united in 
marriage by Rev. C. Nichols — doubtless a Baptist 
minister, because he is called "Elder," and the 



36 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

family were Baptists. This is all the information he 
gives us concerning his marriage. He deals only 
with essentials. 

After his marriage he remains at home about two 
months, during 1 which time he goes several times 
with his bride to visit her parents and friends in New 
Ashford. 



IX 
Fourth Trip Westward. 

Early in March of the same year (1797) he pur- 
chases of his father a horse, a pair of oxen, and a 
cow, and arranged with his brother Samuel to bring 
the oxen and cow to "Ararat," which was one of the 
names applied, at that time, to the entire settlemant 
about Stantonville, but was subsequently applied to 
a town in Susquehanna County, a little further West. 

On the 1 6th of March he mounts his horse and 
starts for the Beech Woods. 

Nothing is said this time about parting tears. He 
is a married man now, and has more definite plans 
for the future, and goes bravely forth to work them 
out, happy in the hope of providing a home to which 
he can bring the wife that he is now compelled to 
leave. 

He reaches "Ararat" on the 24th of March, with 
the purpose of taking up his axe again. But he finds 
it impossible to be merely or mainly a clearer of 
land. It is only the 2d of April when he finds it 
necessary to mount his horse again and start for 
Philadelphia. His horse having been left at Mitchell's 



Road to Minni sink. 37 

Mills, near Coschecton, he goes there, and from there 
over the hills, by way of Carpenters Point, on the 
Delaware River, near Milford. 

Three times during the season he goes to Phila- 
delphia, whereby his relations with the land owners 
and the officials at the land office are very much con- 
firmed. 

However, he gets some potatoes planted early in 
the season, and does some sturdy work at chopping 
and logging, with his own hands, during the Summer 
and Autumn. 

He is also much interested and occupied, during 
the season, in laying out a new road from "Ararat" 
to Minnisink, (Milford) by way of Dybury — assoc- 
iated with Dix, Stearns, Kennedy, Silas and Eliphalet 
Kellogg and Stevenson and Schoonover, in fixing 
the route. He is prominently responsible for secur- 
ing subscriptions, and is able to say in October: "We 
have $500 subscribed for the new road, and three 
parties opening it to Minisink." 

A couple of miles Southwest of his place was a 
pond of water known as Stephenson's mill pond, and 
about this time he had an item of experience there, 
which is perhaps worth mentioning as illustrative of 
"incidents of travel," in those days, and the difficulty 
in procuring supplies in a new and rough country. 

He was crossing Stevenson's mill pond after dark 
in a boat, with a horse and a bag of rye on the 
horse's back, when the horse fell overboard with the 
rye. While he and a boy that was with him were 
fishing for the bag of rye, which they succeeded in 
recovering, the horse made his way to the shore, and 



38 Memoir of Major Jason Torrcy. 

started for home through the woods. His owner 
followed him and brought him back, and loading the 
soaked grain upon him and walking by the horse's 
side, they took a fresh start through the dark 
woods, but had gone only a little way when he lost 
his slippery load and went home without it, and had 
to come back for it next day. Such are some of the 
conveniences of life in a new country. This would 
be regarded by most of us as paying dearly for rye. 
But they were glad to get even that at any cost. 

Earlier in this same season it was that he con- 
structed a house for the reception of his wife, when 
he should be able, by and by, to fetch her there. And ; 
it is made evident that his house-building was rapid 
work. Two days and two half-days brought the 
mansion to completion, from foundation to ridge 
pole. He says : 

"Friday, June 2. — Drew logs for my house." 
"Saturday, June 3. — I laid my house alone and got 
on the plates. 

"Wednesday, June 7. — In forenoon laid my floor." 
"Thursday, June 8. — In forenoon laid my roof." 
His furniture he made at his leisure, at odd mo- 
ments, and especially on rainy days, when he could 
do nothing else, for he was pressed with work from 
dawn till dark. 

His bedstead was made by running a strong pole, 
seven feet long, from the end of the house to meet 
another five feet long, coming from the side of the 
house, and fixing a post under them at their junction, 
and then weaving strips of strong bark lengthwise 
and crosswise. 



Architect and Mechanic. 39 

His chairs were stools made of split logs and his 
table consisted of two such stools, higher and longer 
than the others, with boards laid across them. 

Thus he was ready for house-keeping, and late in 
December went to Williamstown for his wife. 

It should, however, be stated that before another 
Winter he erected a larger and better log cabin, not 
only containing more convenient rooms on the 
ground floor, but furnishing some very useful "log 
cabin chamber room" also. 

It will be noticed how wide was the range of the 
useful arts to which the young men of those times 
could turn their hands, and young Mr. Torrey could 
hardly have been behind the smartest of them in this 
respect. We have just seen how he could build and 
equip his own house. We shall have occasion to 
notice that he was as much at home with elegant 
penmanship and superb drafting as he was with 
chopping and mowing and rolling up the black logs 
into heaps for burning. And we find, from his diary, 
not only that he borrowed tools and made a pail for 
himself while waiting- for his grist to be ground at 
Taylor's mill, but that in January, 1 798, at Williams- 
town, a few days before starting with his young wife 
for the Beech Woods, he made a coat for his brother 
David, and in July of the same year, having pur- 
chased three dressed buckskins, he and Samuel made 
each of them a pair of trousers of them, and had 
some remnants worth mentioning left. 

We shall also see that when it comes to erecting 
public buildings for the new county, he provides the 
plans, and when he furnishes to the carpenters a 



40 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

plan for his own house, two stones high and 33 by 
42 feet in size, none of them had the courage to " lay 
out" the frame, and he had to do it himself. 



X 

On Wednesday, January 31, 1798, about 9 o'clock 
in the morning, Mr. Torrey set out with wife and 
house-hold goods for Pennsylvania. 

The goods were such as could be stowed, "together 
with the two persons, in a two-horse sleigh, leaving 
room for "a pot, a bakepan, a frying pan, a teakettle 
and tin ware to the amount of 4 shillings and 6 
pence," which were to be purchased at Albany. 

After various breakings and mendings and other 
difficulties encountered, and sometimes going for- 
ward for a few hours with half the load and coming 
back for the other half — in one case being obliged 
to leave the sleigh at the coming on of darkness and 
go two or three miles on the horses, through the 
dark woods, to find a shelter for the wintery night, 
they reached the little log house toward which they 
had been so laboriously toiling — 209 miles, in twelve 
days, with $4.25 left in the family purse, having 
started with $18.25. 

It was just before night on the 1 ith day of Febru- 
ary that the young couple drove up to the humble 
dwelling in the midst of a small clearing, closely en- 
circled with forests. 

His brother Samuel, who was also making a be- 
ginning for himself in another part of the forest, had 



Housekeeping Commenced. 41 

been left in care of the premises and the cattle, and 
may be presumed to have had a good fire on the 
rough hearth, for whatever else was scarce, fuel, at 
least, was plenty. 

The meeting of this brother-in-law, who had been 
for years like an affectionate brother to her in the 
household at home, must have been a great relief to 
the young wife, to whom the place must have seemed 
very wild, and the situation very lonely and dreary. 

The moving in of the household goods from the 
sleigh was no very serious undertaking for the two 
strong young men, and by the time the darkness of 
the Winter night had fairly settled about them, the 
young Jason had commenced housekeeping, with his 
beloved Lois as mistress of the mansion. 

The diary is quite silent about the feelings, "uttered 
or unexpressed," that may have possessed their 
minds that evening, but to him it was the realization 
of a long cherished . hope. The homely log cabin 
must have seemed a different thing to him from what 
it has seemed before. To him it must have been 
like the coming of Eve into Eden, and it was easy 
for him to write the word "home" in his diary that 
night. But to her all was so new and strange and 
solitary, and it must have seemed a rough place and 
a hard kind of life. However there is no audible 
sighing, and we can believe that she experienced a 
brave joy in accepting the strange situation. 

After commencing housekeeping at evening, the 
two brothers start out next morning to brine a load 
of hay for the horses and cattle, from the farm of a 
Mr. Dix, three miles away, where Jason had har- 



42 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

vested and stacked it, "on shares," during the previ- 
ous Summer. 

No time could be wasted in the idle enjoyment of 
their honeymoon in their new home, for only five 
days after reaching it, Jason is obliged to leave his 
wife in the rough cabin, and to set out with his team 
for Wyoming, 60 miles distant, to get a load of grain 
for the family bread. 

Arriving there, at the farm of a Mr. Jackson, he 
was obliged to sell one of his horses in order to buy 
the grain — the horse to be sent back to the buyer 
after helping to draw the grain home. 

After arranging thus for the purchase of the grain 
he had to assist in threshing it, which resulted in 3*^ 
bushels of wheat at one dollar, 15 of rye at 67 cents, 
and 5 of oats at about 40 cents, receiving for the 
balance due him for the $60 horse, two notes from 
Mr. Jackson, payable, respectively, 1st of April and 
1 st of September. 

He started for home with his precious load, after 
dark, and crossed the Susquehanna River, in the 
night, "with the water half-leg deep over the ice," 
and a little before day-light reached "Taylor's Mills," 
which were on Roaring Brook, where Scranton now 
is, and 14 miles from place of starting. Here his 
grist, is to be ground, but the poor mill is so much 
like those of the Gods in respect to grinding slowly, 
that both the day and the night will be consumed 
before he can get away, and so he improves his time 
as follows : 

"Found some tools and went to coopering — made 
me a pail, which is the first I ever saw made." — The 
capitals are his. 



Beginning- of Wayne County. 43 

And next morning taking an early start for home, 
before the people were up, he left some bran to pay 
for the pail timber. 

Passing through Cobb's Gap, he spent the night at 
Swingle's, (South Canaan), and was home about 
noon the next day. 



X 

New County. 

Just before reaching home he met Ephraim Kim- 
ble, who had come from the Narrows of the Lacka- 
waxen, with the information that the new County of 
Wayne had been "set off" from Northampton 
County by the Legislature, and Commissioners 
thereof appointed by the Governor, and that a move- 
ment was already on foot in the southern part of the 
new county, and a petition started to have the county 
seat at Minnisink — i. e. Milford. To head off this 
movement a meeting of the more northern settlers 
must be held to-morrow, at Purdy's, on the Wallen- 
papack. 

Therefore Jason could not have an hour's rest at 
home, for he must be half way to Purdy's before 
morning, in order to be in time for the meeting. 

Meanwhile he had to spend the afternoon in driv- 
ing about the settlement, so as to have an under- 
standing with the neighbors (each a half-mile or so 
from the next) about this public business. Then he 
hurried back to his house and fed his horses and 
started by moonlight, and taking neighbor King with 



44 Memoir of Major Jason Torrcy, 

him, made a night ride of 14 miles to "Van Aukens 
Meadows" — about a mile and a half southeast of 
Waymart. 

In the morning Mr. King paid the bill because Mr. 
Torrey had returned from Wyoming with only two 
pence in his pocket and had no bank to draw from. 

They started early from Van Auken's and went 
on to Schenck's (Cherry Ridge) to breakfast, which 
was furnished them gratuituosly in the interest of the 
county business. 

About 40 of the settlers convened at Purdy's, and 
a meeting was organized, and a paper drawn by Jason 
(as the Quakers called him) remonstrating against 
Minnisink, and asking the Commissioners to select 
the place for the county seat. 

About 50 signers were obtained to the paper and 
$20 subscribed toward the expenses of the move- 
ment, of which Jason subscribed one dollar, though 
he had noting with which to pay. 

On the return journey the moneyless Jason had 
some "loading" to carry from Schenck's, for his 
neighbor, King, whereby he provided for the pay- 
ment of expenses, thus earning something with the 
horses, only one of which was his own — the other 
having been sold for food at Wyoming. 

Discharging his load at King's, he took a boy with 
him as far as Mr. Dix's, to help him load the last of 
his hay there, with which he upset on his way home, 
and had to leave half of it and come back and get it 
in the dark. 

It is now early in March and he begins to make 
sap-troughs, as he could command time, and he gets, 



Sugar-making and Shad-fishing. 45 

first and last, a couple of hundred of them, and taps 
as many trees, and makes, first and last, several 
hundred pounds of maple sugar and molasses — the 
operation involving an immense amount of toiling 
and tugging, and long nights as well as days of 
boiling. 

This work is speedily followed by his ploughing 
for his Spring crops, and when he comes to the har- 
rowing in some of these, one of his oxen is sick, and 
he uses (May nth and 12th) the other ox and his 
remaining horse for his team, and thus triumphs over 
the hindrances and gets his crops in. 

Meanwhile he has found time to start a nursery 
of apple trees, and do some days-works at chopping 
the black logs in his fallow, and has been out view- 
ing the work on the new road to Minnisink, and on 
April 24th started for Wyoming again, 60 miles, to 
get some seed oats, taking along two axes to be re- 
paired. Arriving at Jackson's again he finds the 
settlers occupied in catching shad in the Susque- 
hanna River, and the smith will not repair the axes 
for Jason unless Jason will fish for him, receiving 
half his share, which is agreed to. The catch of 
shad amounts to 1600, of which 40 are Jason's accord- 
ing to contract. He buys enough more to make 
half a hundred, and after dressing- them and corning 
them, with two quarts of salt, he puts them into his 
bag designed for the seed oats. Two bushels of 
oats are put in a borrowed sack. With his two 
loaded bags across his horse's back, and the two 
axes over his shoulder, he starts for home, a little 
before night, and trudges on till midnight, then stops 



46 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

for supper and horse feeding, and a little sleep, at 
Alsworths, (Dunmore), but starts again two hours 
before daylight, (having paid his bill with a shad), 
for he must make a forced march of it in order that 
his fish may not have survived their usefulness when 
he gets home. He reached that happy place (be it 
never so homely) after the middle of the second 
nicjht — he and his burdened horse having toiled on 
over the rough roads, with very brief stops, for 30 
hours. Whereupon he writes in his diary: 

" Home after midnight. Called up Samuel to care 
for the fish — my feet so sore I could not stand to 
work at them, and so sleepy I could hardly move." 

The next morning the fish were found to be sweet 
and good — so nice that he sent one as a present to 
Mr. Rogers, and they were so large and fat that 
they "more than half filled a barrel." What a load 
the poor horse must have had ! How provoking to 
the horse, if he had known it, that the shad would 
have no relish for him, and that even the oats were 
for seed and not for feed ! 

It has seemed worth while to go thus into the de- 
tails of a few weeks of Mr. Torrey's life in the woods, 
in order to give some idea of what it was — how 
pressed he was from dawn till dark, and often from 
dark till dawn, also, with downright hard work, task- 
ing the back bone and muscle of the man, and how, 
also, public cares and responsibilities were almost 
constantly forcing themselves upon his attention, 
tasking his brain and consuming his time. 

Several roads were already projected and in pro- 
cess of construction. One to Minnisink, or Milford, 



New Roads Projected. 47 

portions of which are still to be seen, below Bethany, 
down the hill by the Asa Kimble place, and along 
the East bank of the Dyberry, above and opposite 
Honesdale, and so down the Lackawaxen by the 
Indian orchard and the narrows, and Shohola Falls, 
and so on. Not only had he a general superinten- 
dence of the construction of this road, as first opened, 
but many a toilsome day he spent chopping the trees 
out of it with his own hands. On the 10th of April, 
1798, he takes great delight in making the following 
record in his diary: 

"A traveler came through on the new road, and 
spent the night with us." 

Just at the end of this entry are the familiar char- 
acters which represent one shilling and eight pence, 
the amount of the traveler's bill, showing that Jason 
was not too proud to allow his house to be used as 
an informal hotel when there was occasion for it 

Another road was from Mt. Pleasant to the Dela- 
ware river, at Coschecton, to meet there a road from 
Newburg, and thus furnish a route to New York by 
way of the Hudson River. The antecedent events 
connected with the origin and conception of this road 
are peculiarly interesting. 

From Stantonville to Shield's Mills, on the Dela- 
ware, near Coschecton, a distance of about 20 miles, 
was a trackless wilderness. No white man had been 
through it. 

During one of Mr. Torrey's early visits at Phila- 
delphia he came across some maps which gave him 
the material for determining- the courses and dis- 
tances of a line from Stantonville to Coschecton. 



48 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

Giving this data to two of his neighbors, Silas and 
Eliphalet Kellogg, who imagined themselves survey- 
ors, he sent them, with provisions for one night, to 
find a way through the woods to Coschecton. They 
became bewildered and lost their confidence in their 
compass, and the second day was stormy, and they 
lay out a second night, with nothing to eat, and were 
delighted in the early morning to hear the crowing 
of a cock, and supposing they were near Coschec- 
ton, followed the course indicated by the friendly 
sound, and came out 011 the Lackazuaxen, at a place 
now known as Tracyville, one mile below Honesdale 
nearly as far from Coschecton as they were when 
they started. 

The owner of the crowing rooster on the Lacka- 
waxen was a half-breed Indian by the name of Bob 
Bayham, who gave them something to eat and set 
them on an Indian trail which would lead them up 
the Lackawaxen till they should come to a road on 
the Dybury which would bring them to Mt. Pleasant. 

Mr. Torrey was both disgusted and stimulated by 
this performance, and he took a hand hatchet and a 
pocket compass, and started alone for Coschecton, 
and on arriving there met Mr. Thomas Shields, who 
sent a couple of men back with him, with their axes, 
and marked a path to Mt. Pleasant, and this for 
several years was known as Torrey's Path. 

Subsequently, some men from New York were up 
at Newburg, and were studying to find a route to 
Western New York without going around by Cats- 
kill. Some man at Newburg asked them why they 
did not follow Torrey's Path which led off Westward 



Turnpikes — East, West and South. 49 

toward the Great Bend. This resulted in their find- 
ing Mr. Torrey, and ultimately arranging that they 
should procure a charter, in New York, for a turn- 
pike from Newburg to Coschecton, and he, in Penn- 
sylvania, for a turnpike from Coschecton to Great 
Bend, from which latter place there would be found 
a road quite ready for them, leading on to Bingham- 
ton and to Owesfo, and so on Westward. 

All this was done, and there resulted for Wayne 
County the well-known "Coschecton and Great 
Bend Turnpike," which passed through Mt. Pleasant, 
and which for many years was a great mail route, and 
was made musical with stage horns and busy with 
stages, carrying passengers to and fro between New 
York and the "far West." 

This was the second of the roads of which I was 
speaking as enlisting the interest and energies of the 
settlers at Stantonville. 

Another road was projected a few years later still, 
almost directly Southward toward Philadelphia, called 
the "Belmont and Easton Turnpike." This road, 
South of Salem, lay for many miles through a heavy 
and unbroken forest, called the 1 2 mile woods,, and 
it was a herculean task to get the men and teams and 
supplies upon the ground and along the route for 
carrying it through. 

All these roads reached or passed near the settle- 
ment at. Stantonville. They were large enterprises 
in their day, requiring for their accomplishment as 
much courage and energy as the Erie Canal did in 
its day. 



50 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

Mr. Torrey was actively associated with the con- 
struction of each of these roads, in the various capac- 
ities of surveyor and director, and financier and con- 
structor. 



XI 

It was evidently expected by the settlers at Stan- 
tonville that it would become an important centre of 
business and influence as the new country should be 
developed. How the location of the county seat 
changed all this, and how the change proved an ad- 
vantage rather than a disaster to Mr. Torrey, will 
appear as we proceed. 

Meanwhile the expected importance of that place, 
and the apparent magnitude of the public and private 
interests of the settlers, gave an exaggerated conse- 
quence to questions of neighborhood policy and of 
individual influence. 

Strong men were concentrated there — men who 
were sagacious enough to plan, and energetic enough 
to push, important public enterprises which were 
reaching out toward New England and New York, 
in one direction, and toward Philadelphia in the other. 
Thus these men were not only giving impulse to the 
development and growth of that whole region of 
country, but were likely to give shape to its character 
and history. 

If we had occasion to use the names of these men, 
in different parts of the northern portion of the 
county, as those names are constantly appearing in 
Mr. Torrey's diary, it would be interesting to notice 



Leadei'ship at Stantonville. 5 1 

how familiar they are to many of us ; Stanton, Mum- 
ford, Stevenson, Chittenden, Kellogg, Preston, 
Woodward, Schoonover, Kimball, Seeley, Schenck, 
Purdy, Jennings, Dimmick, Kennedy, King, Kellogg, 
Bunting, Rogers, Collins, Bunnell, Smith, Nelson, 
Pullis, Miller, Wilder, &c, &c, all are names of per- 
sons whose descendants are in the county to this 
day. 

Leadership at Stantonville might become leader- 
ship in the county, by and by, when the population 
of the county would be increased tenfold. Men of 
influence there were already associated and would be 
associated more and more with men of influence at 
Philadelphia and Lancaster, which were centres of 
influence in the State. 

Therefore this little group of farms and cabins 
scattered in the woods, like islands in a bay of the 
ocean, no one clearing touching another, was not the 
insignificant thing which some might suppose it to be. 
It was already a living part of a great Republican Com- 
monwealth, and the pulse of the Commonwealth was 
beating in the veins of the men of this remote com- 
munity. The elements of popular government and 
Republican statesmanship were already seething in 
the minds of these log-cabin and forest-chopping 
citizens. 

Leadership in such a community was not only 
gratifying to a man's natural ambition for personal 
eminence, but gratifying also to every noblest desire 
for usefulness, and for energetic achievements for the 
public welfare. 



5 2 Memoir of Major yason Torrey. 

Undoubtedly the two principal candidates for this 
leadership were Esquire Stanton and Surveyor 
Torrey, and we regret to find in the diary of the latter 
that this rivalry, which was not intended by either, 
but was forced upon both by their respective friends, 
led to serious misunderstandings and conflicts, so 
that the two were on very uncomfortable terms with 
each other, for a year or two. There was a grim 
element in the quarrel which expressed itself in very 
harsh words, some of which were recorded, and others 
referred to, afterwards, with shame and regret. 

But a matter of business shut them up together 
one day, and the conference, beginning with com- 
plaints and mutual criminations, led on to frank and 
full explanations, and sundry confessions on both 
sides, and ended, not only in entire reconciliation 
and a covenant of personal friendship, but in an 
agreement that they would quietly endeavor to erad- 
icate the party animosities of the settlement. 

But aside from these misunderstandings the prom- 
inence accorded to young Torrey in the community 
was very beneficial to him — stimulating all his facul- 
ties, calling his best gifts into requsition, and every 
way developing and enlarging him. 

He was secretary of almost every public, meeting, 
and was relied upon to draw up the public papers by 
which the Courts or the Legislature were addressed. 
The settlers came to him with their land business, 
not only when they needed surveying done, but 
when they needed advice in respect to perfecting 
their claims and securing their titles. 



Various Toils and Attainments. 53 

There was nothing In this line which the best law- 
yers could have done for them that he could not do, 
and did not do, cheerfully, as a matter of neighbor- 
hood favor and kindness. 

Add all this to his surveying work for the Phila- 
delphia land owners, and for men in other parts of 
the county, from Stockport to Minnisink and West 
to "Nine Partners," and to his surveying on the 
roads, and to the work that was constantly crowding 
him on his own farm, and his life was made very 
busy and laborious. But his labors were so various 
and so much of them brain-work, of a broad and lib- 
eral character, requiring comprehensive grasp of 
thought, and familiar acquaintance with the principles 
and forms of law, together with nice use of language, 
and exact and compact statements of argument, that 
it was all very educating to him, and he attained in- 
tellectual and literary capabilities that were quite re- 
markable in a person whose technical education, after 
the meagre schooling of boyhood, was obtained dur- 
ing those twelve weeks in Williams Academy in 
1791. 

But these attainments were not easily made. They 
were the result of the most severe and exhaustive task- 
ing of both body and mind, during the seven or eight 
years of his residence at Mt. Pleasant — say from 
1794 to 1 801 or 1802. It is impossible to be more 
specific because his getting away from that place was 
a gradual process, his life being elsewhere for a year 
or two while his home remained there. 

There were three sons in the family before it was 
transferred to its new home. William having been 



54 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

born in September, 1798 ; Ephraim in October, 1799, 
and Nathaniel in November, 1800. All in the log 
cabin at Mt. Pleasant. 

It would have been interesting to notice at the 
proper date, that when the first child was expected 
to arrive, and to arrive soon, a part of a day was 
spent, by Jason himself, in clearing away some logs 
and other impediments from the poor road through 
the woods, so that the "women" (there being no 
doctor) could be sent for by night or day without 
hindrance, and the said clearing of the road proved 
to be not a day too soon. "While the cocks were 
crowing next morning the boy came." 

These were years of extreme poverty for Mr. 
Torrey, so that he was often absolutely penniless, 
and well nigh foodless, and burdened with debt, and 
several times had his oxen and other items of prop- 
erty attatched by the constable, and was often greatly 
discouraged and depressed. But he continued to 
devote much time and labor to public services for 
which he received no direct compensation, because 
there was need that the services be rendered by 
somebody, and nobody else was so well qualified as 
he to render them. 

If we could have occasionally looked inside that 
log cabin, during these years, we should doubtless 
have seen a toiling and often anxious wife and 
mother there. Aside from the care of her husband 
and infant children, there would often come land 
buyers, sometimes gentlemen from the cities, and 
would need to be furnished with food and lodging 
for two or three days, while he was out with them 



Extent of New County. 55 

from dawn till dark, viewing the lands. On one oc- 
casion he records that they had nine to breakfast. 
How they had all been bestowed during the night, 
and how meals could be provided for so many guests 
from such scanty supplies, is a question not easily 
answered. 



XII 
We come now to an interesting chapter in this 
history, as it accounts for the change of residence 
already foreshadowed. 

It will be remembered that a new county was 
erected by the Legislature in 1798. The act author- 
ized trustees, who were therein named, to select a 
place for the county seat, and they selected Milford 
for that purpose, which was very unsatisfactory to a 
majority of the people of the county. 

The new county of Wayne extended from the 
North line of the State, Southward along the Dela- 
ware River, nearly 150 miles, to within six or eight 
miles of the Delaware Water Gap. Milford was at 
one side of the county, while Stantonville was at the 
other. The dissatisfaction was so great, that at the 
next session of the Legislature in 1799, an act was 
passed directing that the county seat should be lo- 
cated within four miles of " Dyberry Forks" — i. e. 
within four miles of where Honesdale now is, and 
that the courts should be held at Wflsonville, until 
the place for the county seat should be fixed by 



56 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

the trustees named, and suitable county buildings 
erected. 

Various sites, as Indian Orchard, Cherry Ridge, 
Seeleys Mills and others were suggested to the trus- 
tees. 

Meanwhile, however, an incident occured of much 
interest to Mr. Torrey. One of the largest specula- 
tors in land, Mr. Henry Drinker, of Philadelphia, had 
obtained warrants for twenty-four adjoining tracts of 
400 acres each to be located between the Dyberry 
and the West Branch of Lackawaxen. By reason 
of a lack of care in preparing the descriptions in- 
serted in the warrants, the Deputy Surveyor con- 
cluded that not more than half of Mr. Drinker's 
warrants could be there located, and so informed Mr. 
Drinker, who was advised to consult Mr. Torrey 
about it. In the mean time Mr. J. Nicholson, another 
land speculator, of Philadelphia, learned of the 
Deputy Surveyors conclusion, and obtained thirteen 
warrants, intended to cover what Mr. Drinker's 
warrants could not take. 

On the subject being explained to Mr. Torrey, he 
assured Mr. Drinker that if a judicious care was used 
in fixing the particular location of each tract, all the 
twenty-four warrants could be there located. Mr. 
Drinker committed the whole matter to Mr. Torrey's 
management, promising that if he succeeded in 
demonstrating this to the Deputy Surveyor, and pro- 
curing returns of survey to be made on all the war- 
rants, he would liberally compensate him for it. 

The returns were so made, and patents issued to 
Mr. Drinker for the twenty-four tracts. This body 



Locating the County Seat. 5 7 

of lands extended from within two miles of Dyberry 
Forks northward, about six miles, so that part of it 
was within the limits fixed for the county seat. 

In this connection the following entries in Mr. 
Torrey's journal are of interest : 

May 6, 1800 — "Took surveying instruments and 
maps covering all the territory within four miles of 
Dyberry Forks, and went to court at Wilsonville. 

May 9 — "Started out with the county commission- 
ers and spent two days in exploring the circuit within 
four miles of Dyberry Forks, for a place for the 
County seat." 

May 11 — "Made for the trustees, a list of the 
owners of land within that four miles radius to enable 
them to write for proposals." 

Proposals had already been received from several. 
Mr. Tilghman who owned land on Cherry Ridge, 
and Mr. Drinker, each proposed to give the county 
any connected thousand acres of his land if they 
would erect the county buildings on it. 

May 15 — "At request of trustees, set out with 
them to designate the place for the court house, ac- 
companied by Esquire Stanton and George Levers, 
both urging Cherry Ridge. After viewing Cherry 
Ridge locality, and Mr. Drinker's lands, the trustees 
proceeded to vote." 

The result of the vote was a decision to locate on 
the Drinker lands by a majority of 3 to 1 , and the 
Journal continues: 

May 16 — "The trustees proceeded to designate 
site for court house by driving a stake in presence of 
many witnesses — entered their proceedings on their 



58 Memoir of Major Jason Ton'ey. 

minutes and subscribed their names thereto, wit- 
nessed by all present." 

The location thus determined upon was about 1 3 
miles east-southeast from Stantonville, near the route 
of the road to Minnisink. It was on a broad slope 
of high ground, inclining gently to the southeast and 
dropping off gradually to the right and left into the 
valleys of two brooks, and at this time all was cov- 
ered with heavy forest, the nearest settlers being 
four families close along the Dyberry, viz.: Pullis, 
Nelson, Asa Kimble and Schoonover. 

Soon after the site for the court house had been 
selected on Mr. Drinker's land, and the exterior 
lines of the town plot of 1,000 acres selected by the 
trustees had been surveyed, Mr. Drinker, in settling 
with Mr. Torrey for aiding to obtain the land, au- 
thorized him to locate, for his own use, and subse- 
quently conveyed to him, 400 acres of land thus lo- 
cated, adjoining East of the town plot. Much of the 
homestead farm of Mr. Torrey was on this 400 acres. 

Immediately after the site for the county seat had 
been located by the trustees, the friends of that loca- 
tion became eager to have it fastened there, and 
measures were taken to lay out the town, and com- 
mence the erection of the public buildings without 
delay. 

Without waiting to raise funds in the county, they 
sent at once to Philadelphia and obtained money and 
supplies on their own credit, for the clearing of the 
land and the speedy erection of the public buildings. 

We noticed that it was on the 16th of May that 
the precise spot for the court house was fixed. Fur- 



Making a Diary-book, 59 

ther entries in his diary show that on June 2d Mr. 
Torrey met the trustees at that spot (where no tree 
had yet been fallen), and drew a plan for the court 
house and jail. 

On June 10th, the "neighbors" were called together 
to put up a log house to serve as shelter and board- 
ing house for the mechanics and other laborers. 



XIII 

These days of the Summer and Autumn of 1 800, 
are busy and buoyant days with Mr. Torrey. He 
shoots back and forth between his log cabin and the 
county seat like a weaver's shuttle. 

The record of his daily doings is quite full, and is 
preserved in a home-made book consisting of just 
a quire of large, strong, white, foolscap paper, stitched 
together without being folded, and protected by a 
stiff cover, which he had made by pasting solidly to- 
gether several thicknesses of newspaper. Thus the 
book is covered with "pasteboard" in the strictest 
sense of that word. The outside thickness of news- 
paper is a copy of The Philadelphia Gazette, of June 
19th, 1 798 — having for its motto, "The public will, our 
guide. The public good, our aim" and containing a 
brief message to Congress by President John 
Adams. 

The paste of the cover has been so tempting to 
moths or other insects that it is eaten through and 
through, but the writing is perfectly preserved. 

He has on hand, at this time, two large jobs of 



60 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

surveying, viz.: that of dividing the balance of Mr. 
Drinker's land into farm lots, and that of cutting up 
the County's one thousand acres into 254 house lots, 
for the county town, and 163 out lots, of five acres 
each, adjacent to and surrounding the house lots. 

Besides this he has his farm work to attend to and 
much of it to do with his own hands, and liberally 
mingled with this is surveying for others, and con- 
stant and important correspondence with gentlemen 
in Philadelphia and elsewhere, so that often in con- 
nection with the record of a hard day's work, on the 
farm, or in the woods, will be a notice of writing 
two or three or half a dozen letters, and reference to 
their being copied. 

Some of this office work, performed in the log 
cabin at Mt. Pleasant, is very handsome, showing the 
nicest skill in penmanship and drafting. And he 
speaks about this time of being engaged in prepar- 
ing a plan of the new county town, on "Silk Post," 
to be sent to Philadelphia. 

The surveying for the village was a new experi- 
ence to him, and required a new degree of accuracy, 
so that he had to study up for the work, and tells 
of going to Stockport (Judge Preston's) "for a book 
containing the rule for obtaining the true meridian." 
And in laying out the streets of the embryo village, 
naming them Wayne street, Court street, Sugar 
street, &c, he found that one of them was marked a 
few inches too wide at one end, and had great diffi- 
culty in adjusting the instruments to the variation of 
the needle, and the greater difficulty because he did 
not take into account the diurnal variation — i. e. he 



Elegant work in rough places. 6 1 

did not at that time understand that lines, run by the 
magnetic needle, in the afternoon, will not be in pre- 
cise correspondence with those run by the same in- 
strument in the morning, so that the needle cannot 
be depended upon for the nicest work. 

Nevertheless, he corrected his work as best he 
could, and actually had the court house frame, after 
it was raised, moved six inches Southward in order 
that it might be in just the right place, and all this, 
be it remembered, in the zuoods, with no single square 
rod of smooth, cleared surface, but all the measuring 
done amid stumps and logs and cradle knolls and 
branches of fallen trees. 

All this is said in order to indicate concerning the 
man of whom we are writing that he could not only 
accomplish a great amount of very rapid and varied 
work, but that he required of himself to do all well, 
and if necessary with extreme niceness and accuracy, 
and portions of it with great elegance and beauty. 

Arrangements were made for a sale of town lots 
at Wilsonville, during an approaching court week, 
and Mr. Torrey was so hurried in finishing the sur- 
veying, and preparing the necessary maps, to be laid 
before the people at the time of the sale, that he 
makes record that he did not give himself "half reas- 
onable time for eating and sleeping," and that at mid- 
night on the 7th of August, he finished his map of the 
village plot at his cabin at Mt. Pleasant, and started, 
by moonlight, at 3 o'clock of the morning of August 
8th, for Wilsonville, where he arrived at 10 (about 
25 miles over rough roads), and acted as clerk of 
sale all the week, resulting in sales of lots to the 
amount of $1,700. 



62 Memoir of Majoi" Jason Torrey. 

Returning now to the regular order of proceed- 
ings we recall the fact that early in June a plan was 
adopted by the trustees for the public buildings. 

On August 8th, (Mr. Torrey, having been, mean- 
while to Philadelphia to see Mr. Drinker and others) 
" assisted the carpenter in making plan and bill of 
timber for court house," and on the 9th "made bill 
of scantling and drew contract between trustees and 
Walter Kimble for furnishing the sawed lumber," 
(most of the timber for the frame, including studs, 
being hewed upon the spot.) 

On 1 2th to 15th he and his surveying party "bor- 
rowed axes, because laboring men could not be pro- 
cured, and went to scoring timber for the carpenters 
at fifty cents per day, at the same time that survey- 
ing business is suffering for which I should receive 
$3 per day." 

On September 5 the frame of the court house was 
raised. 

On October 4, the place is first designated in the 
journal as Bethany, a sweet name, suggestive, by its 
origin, of rural refinement and domestic peace and 
affection. 

The inclination for scripture names in the county 
is indicated by the adoption of such titles for town- 
ships, as Canaan, Salem, Lebanon and Damascus, 
and the fact that letters written at the narrows of the 
Lackawaxen, at this time, were dated at Mt. Moriah. 

So comes on the Winter of 1 800 and 1 80 1 . 

During the Summer and Autumn, of 1801, matters 
progress finely at Bethany. On September 11 Mr. 
Torrey writes : 



Beginnings at Bethany. 6 



o 



''County town grows rapidly. Several houses 
will be comfortably finished this Fall. Three families 
are now there. The court house has been reported 
finished, and the jail nearly so." 

Nearly all of these "several houses" were of logs, 
but one of them, built by Mr. Drinker, was quite a 
large, double, two-story house, standing across the 
street, west from the northwest corner of the public 
square, which is still standing there, and still occu- 
pied as a dwelling. Into this house Mr. Torrey 
brought his family in December, 1801. 

To Mrs. Torrey this new home was more lonely 
than that in the Mt. Pleasant woods. Writing to her 
"Dear Mamma," in May, 1802, she has a doleful 
story to tell : 

"Two or three weeks after we moved here, my 
husband set out for Philadelphia, and did not return 
for three months. (Where he was and what doing 
during those three months we shall see presently.) 
Being- left alone and in a strange neighborhood, 
added to the poor state of my health, I really thought 
it the worst of all places in the world. Indeed I 
never experienced such a Winter in my life. But 
my husband returned, and a prospect of having in a 
few days, several families of very agreeable neigh- 
bors, renders the place again more agreeable." 

Mr. Torrey began clearing a farm on some of the 
Bethany out-lots, he had purchased, and which were 
situated just out from Bethany toward the north and 
northeast, and he expected to build a house for him- 
self, during the following Summer, fronting on the 
north side of the public square, where he owned some 
village town lots. 



64 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey, 

Indeed the days of his poverty seemed to be ended. 
A large and profitable business, congenial to his 
tastes, in the way of surveying and land agency, had 
fallen into his hands, and seemed sure to increase 
from year to year. His debts, that had so burdened 
and harassed him, were well nigh cancelled. There 
was a fair prospect that the excessive and wearing 
toils that had devolved upon him and his faithful wife 
for the past few years would cease to oppress them, 
and would be for the future, reduced to a reasonable 
degree of industry. 

Moreover he was as much interested in the bright 
prospects of the town and county as in his own — 
much more, one would think from reading his jour- 
nal and letters. 

He writes to his home in Williamstown, author- 
izing his father and brothers to say to any young 
men who are inclined to go into the new country, 
Westward, that there is no better place for them to 
settle, anywhere, than in Wayne County, and near 
Bethany. 



XIV 

But his patience and courage are to be subjected 
to new trials. A greivous disappointment awaited 
him and his immediate neighbors. 

The people of Milford succeeded in pursuading 
the Legislature in February, 1802, to remove the 
county seat to that placeyftr three years. 

The injustice of the proceeding seemed great and 
inexcusable, and although the act of Legislature said 



Lobbying with the Legislature. 65 

"for three years and no longer'' yet it was feared 
that the same influences that had led to the violation 
of the previous engagement, would secure the viola- 
tion of this also. 

Mr. Torrey had spent nearly the entire Winter 
(this is the three months absence to which his wife 
refers) in attendance upon the Legislature, at his 
own expense, with reference to this business, and had 
advanced money to the amount of more than a 
thousand dollars for the public improvements, and 
thus found himself burdened with debt again, and 
greatly embarrassed. 

Besides the financial embarrassment there is the 
discouraging effect of the fruitlessness of his Winter's 
work in a cause which he knew to be a just one, and 
his indignation at the folly and injustice of the action 
of the Legislature. 

Of course his house-building is postponed, and his 
life becomes a severe and toilsome struggle again. 

But he shows no signs of faint-heartedness. He 
goes resolutely forward with the clearing of his farm, 
and with such other business as comes to his hands. 

He moves into the jail house in June, 1802, and 
writes to his father that he and his whole family are 
"in jail" at last. From that home it is that the hard- 
working wife writes in September, 1802: "We have 
had for a few weeks past, ten or twelve in the family, 
but hope it will soon be less." 

Until December, 1802, the nearest Post-office was 
at Stroudsburg, (50 miles), and from that time ar- 
rangement was made by private enterprise, to run 
a "Post" to that place once in two weeks. 



66 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

It was during the last of these three years of try- 
ing uncertainty about the county seat, that Mr. 
Torrey was elected Major of Militia, on the 26th of 
November, 1804, and was so commissioned by the 
Governor for a term of seven years. But the title 
clung to him, and he was popularly known and 
spoken of as "Major Torrey" to the end of his life. 

But as the last of these three trying years is pass- 
ing away, there is a reviving confidence that justice, 
as well as the visible seat thereof, is coming back to 
Bethany. The Legislature of 1804-5 was very posi- 
tive in recognizing the right of that place to have the 
county seat, and, in the face of strong influences 
from Milford, refivsed, by a large majority, to alter 
the act of 1802, which provided for the removal of 
the county offices to Milford "for thi'ee years and no 
longer." This refusal carried with it the restoration 
of the seat of justice to Bethany, and made it sure 
that the court would hold its sessions there in the 
Spring of 1805. 

In anticipation of this Mr. Torrey had commenced 
building his house in the Summer of 1804, and "was 
obliged to lay out the frame himself — 42x33, with a 
kitchen in the rear, 20 feet square, and a porch on 
the east side of the kitchen, 9 feet wide, and a buttery 
at the north end of the porch." How familiar it all 
is in the memory of the surviving members of the 
family ! 

The house was hurried, during the Winter, to such 
completion as that it was opened as a hotel and en- 
tertained from 60 to 70 guests during the first court 
week there, in the Spring of 1805, and the court 



Much away from Home. 67 

itself was held, for the first day, in the East front 
room of that house, and whatever other conveniences 
they may have lacked they were certainly able to 
have a ''Bench of Judges," for a carpenter's work- 
bench, fresh from amid the shavings, was mounted 
with chairs, and upon it the Honorable Court was 
perched. 



XV 

We have noticed how much of the time Mr.Torrey 
was away from his family, on his frequent trips to 
Philadelphia and on his surveying campaigns, which 
would sometimes keep him in the woods for weeks 
together, and he would scarcely return from one be- 
fore he must be off on another, or some matter of 
public interest would be awaiting his return, and 
would hurry him away without allowing a single 
night of rest under his own roof. 

And so reticent is his journal, for month after 
month, at times, concerning his family, that you 
would hardly know that he had any. 

But letters written to the parental home at Wil- 
liamstown reveal the teriderest interest and care for 
his wife and little boys. Indeed an occasional revel- 
ation in that direction is found in the journal, as when, 
under date of Saturday, February 7, 1 801, he writes: 

"At evening, Ephraim was badly scalded, which 
prevents my going to court next week." 

Monday, February 9th — "I have sent papers and 
letters, for trustees, in locked cannister, to Wilson- 



68 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

ville. I spend the week in attendance upon the burnt 
child." 

In a letter to his parents, written from Philadelphia, 
July 27, 1803, he speaks of his wife as not being as 
well as usual and then adds : 

"I feel a concern on her account every day of my 
absence, but to act the part of the eagle in the nest, 
from the bad report of the sow at the root, would, 
like other errors, meet censure. Business calls — 
necessity drives and I obey." 

Thus hurried and driven by the pressure of public 
and private duties, he had little opportunity for 
either active or restful enjoyment with his family, and 
even that little was nearly crowded out from all men- 
tion by his absorbing business engagements. 

The training of the little boys was left, almost en- 
tirely to their mother, and safely left there, it would 
seem, from an occasional report to the grand parents, 
as when, on July 27, 1803, when the eldest was not 
yet five, he writes : 

"Our boys are promising, and excel in their learn- 
ing, to which their Mama is especially attentive, and 
Billy, the oldest, (not yet five years old), is, in his 
reading, halfway through the New Testament." 

While, from first to last, in the history of his im- 
mediate family, he expected his children, as they 
grew up, to be self-reliant and self-helpful, and to 
begin very early in life to be helpful to others also, 
yet no labor, by night or day, was too severe for him, 
and no last dollar too precious to be used in making 
generous provision for the comfort of his household, 
and when, on account of sickness or any misfortune, 



Devotion to his Family. 69 

they needed special attention and sympathy, his 
strong nature responded to the necessity with a care 
as tender as that of a mother. 

Indeed love for his family — an ambitious and affec- 
tionate interest in their future, was a deep and con- 
trolling impulse with him. It was for the sake of his 
family that he often seemed to neglect his family, just 
as it is for the sake of his brood that the paternal 
eagle often flies furthest from the nest, according to 
the moral of the fable above referred to. 

To use his own form of expression, as already 
quoted from his earlier diary, while he did not desire 
that his children should be released, in the future, 
from the claims of a reasonable and healthful indus- 
try, he chose to deprive himself of home comforts 
and his family of his immediate presence and care, 
and to no forth on those long; and laborious exiles 
and those ceasless toils and hardships, in order that, 
by and by, the members of his family might be free 
from the necessity of slavish and drudging toil. In 
so far as he had private ends in view, these were his 
inspiring and controlling motives. And his descend- 
ants have realized precisely that result to a large 
degree, and might have realized it in still larger de- 
gree, if a wise use had always been made of what 
he accomplished for them. His children and his 
grand children — some in each of these classes are, 
down to this day, in their old age, or on their sick 
beds, experiencing various reliefs and comforts which 
are the legitimate results of his enterprising labors 
and self-denying hardships and toils. 



yo Memoir of Major Jason Torrey 



XVI 

Returning now to the current history of events, 
we find that while the conflict about the county seat 
of Wayne was in progress, from 1800 to 1805, 
another and broader conflict, having its nearest seat 
in the adjoining county of Luzerne, but having the 
proportions of a State and even of an Inter-state ques- 
tion, was also in progress, and in it Mr. Torrey took 
a lively interest and an efficient though pacific hand. 

This was the controversy with the Connecticut 
settlers, and originated in this wise : 

When the Colony of Connecticut received its char- 
ter from the King of England, in 1631, nothing was 
known of the geography of the country West of the 
Hudson River. The description of the Territory of 
Connecticut, in said charter, seems sufficiently inter- 
esting and curious to justify inserting it here. The 
territory is described as "all that part of New Eng- 
land, in America, which lies and extends itself from 
a river there called Naraganset River, (Long Island 
Sound), the space of 40 leagues upon a straight line, 
near the shore towards the Southwest West, and by 
South or West, as the coast lieth towards Virginia, 
accounting three English miles to the league: Also 
all and singular the lands and hereditaments whatso- 
ever lying and being within the bounds aforesaid, 
North and South, in latitude and breadth aforesaid, 
throughout the mainlands there, from the Western 
Ocean (Atlantic) to the South Sea (Pacific.)" 

Therefore the Westward boundary of the Colony 
of Connecticut was no where — i. e. the Territory ex- 



Connecticut' 's Vast Claims. 71 

tended across Hudson River and Westward, indefi- 
nitely, even to the Pacific Ocean, so far as appears 
from this generous charter. It was making a big 
thing of snug little Connecticut. Very appropriate 
are the words "lies and extends" in the charter. 

Of course these bounds were found to interfere 
with the grant made to the Duke of York for the 
province of New York, because, according to the 
above charter, Connecticut would stretch entirely 
across the Southern part of New York, from East to 
West, and entirely across the Northern part of Penn- 
sylvania also. Therefore the King, in 1664, ap- 
pointed commissioners to determine the Western 
boundary of Connecticut, and they fixed it East of the 
Hudson, nearly where it is now, and the Governor 
and commissioners of Connecticut signed a formal 
acceptance of that, as the Western boundary of that 
colony. 

This arrangement was made about 16 years before 
the grant of Pennsylvania was made to William 
Penn. 

But when, after the revolution, the colonial prov- 
inces of Connecticut and Pennsylvania became states, 
Conneticut still claimed the ownership of the North- 
ern part of Pennsylvania under the old charter. The 
dispute between the States was settled, beyond ap- 
peal by the award of a Commission, organized under 
the provisions of Section 9 of the "Articles of Con- 
federation of the United States." This Commission 
convened at Trenton in 1782, and, after a session of 
forty days, decreed that "the State of Conneticut has 
no right to the lands in controversy." 



72 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

Also that "the jurisdiction of all territory within 
the charter boundary of Pennsylvania, and now 
claimed by the State of Connecticut, does of right 
belong to the State of Pennsylvania." 

This settled all questions as between the states, 
but, meanwhile, a large number of settlers had taken 
up lands and organized 17 townships in the valley of 
the Susquehanna, under Connecticut authority, be- 
fore the time of the Trenton decree. These men must 
not be defrauded of their lands and the improvements 
they had made on them. 

But these same lands were also' claimed, and justly 
claimed, by men who had purchased them from the 
•State of Pennsylvania. 

To secure an equitable adjustment of these con- 
flicting claims, a Commission was appointed by the 
Legislature of Pennsylvania, in 1799, to examine all 
the claims and fix the amount that each settler, under 
Connecticut, should justly pay to the State of Penn- 
sylvania in order to the perfecting of his title, and 
also the amount which the State should pay to those 
who would thus be required to relinquish the claims 
which they had purchased from the State. 

This Commission performed its delicate and diffi- 
cult task with much patient labor, and with the 
utmost impartiality and fairness, and the result should 
have been a speedy 'ending of the whole trouble. 

But many of the Connecticut settlers rejected the 
reasonable and easy terms thus offered them and de- 
termined to hold their land on the basis of their Con- 
necticut claims, and maintain the sovreignty of those 
1 7 townships under Connecticut authority. So per- 



Acting as Peacemaker. j$ 

sistent were they in this, through two or three years, 
that the Governor of Pennsylvania was on the point 
of using the militia of the State, either to compel 
them to submission or to eject them from the lands. 
The Philadelphia land owners (mostly Quakers) 
were opposed to the employment of any such severe 
measures as the Governor contemplated, and Mr. 
Torrey was in sympathy with them. He was also in 
active though quiet co-operation with them for a 
whole year, or more, as his private papers of this 
period show. He was doing business for these land- 
holders, as their agent, in the Northern part of the 
State, and his business brought him much in contact 
with the settlers in the Connecticut townships, and 
he was quietly using his influence to prevent an open 
conflict between the settles and the State, and bring 
about a peaceful arrangement of the whole contro- 
versy. 

It was on March i, 1803, j ust about three years 
after the Commission of adjustment was appointed 
by the Governor, and when about two years of re- 
sistance on the part of the Connecticut settlers to 
the awards of that commission, had wrought up the 
controversy between them and the authorities of the 
State almost to the point of a violent and bloody 
conflict, that Mr. Torrey writes to his parents from 
Philadelphia as follows: 

"When I left home last Monday I expected to be 
absent four weeks. I now expect to be at home a 
week from this day." 

"The urgency of my return is occasioned by an 
interference between the landholders and the Ex- 



74 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

ecutive of the State, relative to the Connecticut settlers 
in Luzerne. The Governor has proposed sending a 
military force, and we (i. e.: the landholders and Mr. 
Torrey) are for bringing them to an amicable settle- 
ment." 

"In this I flatter myself with some success; at least 
sufficient to avert a civil war with them." 

"For the last twelvemonth, I have taken the posi- 
tion of a meditator between the landholders and the 
intruders. Both parties have embraced my proposals 
and it now remains to put the plan in operation." 

"The law knows no such thing as compromise be- 
tween the injured and the offender. To punish the 
one and restore to the other are its only means. But 
when the offender acknowledges his crime, comes 
forward with an honorable restitution and allies him- 
self by strong ties of interest to the party he has in- 
jured, the Executive may forgive the injury, and even 
promote and encourage the measure." 

"The mission upon which I am now engaged will 
decide the fate of the Connecticut settlers, who are 
under a Connecticut claim. If they treat for a pur- 
chase, they may, from intruders — violators of the 
laws of the State, and of the United States — become 
valuable citizens and good members of society. If 
these terms are rejected, force will speedily compel 
them, and they may be exterminated from the 
country." 

It would seem, from a comparison of these private 
papers of Mr. Torrey with the known history of the 
period, that while the Connecticut settlers were for 
a year or two (1802 and 1803) in a state of unarmed 



The Conflict Settled. 75 

resistance to, and rebellion against, the laws and 
executive authorities of the State, Mr. Torrey, with- 
out appearing in the public history at all, was able, 
in an obscure but effective way, to exert a pacifying 
influence upon the troubled waters of the time. 
Representing, in a manner, the Quaker land-owners, 
who were regarded by the rebellious settlers as their 
antagonists and adversaries, and at the same time 
familiar with the settlers by personal intercourse, and 
having their confidence as a disinterested party, he 
was able to persuade them that their Connecticut 
claims were legally untenable and morally unjustifia- 
ble, and to convince them also of the kind feeling 
of the Quaker claimants, and the fairness of the 
terms offered by them, and thus to consummate the 
negotiation and settlement with which he had been 
privately entrusted, and which evidently assisted 
largely in the healing of the whole difficulty. 

Doubtless there are men now in the Wyoming 
valley, whose fathers or grandfathers would have 
been driven from their homes by military force, but 
for this peaceful negotiation, and who, by this nego- 
tiation, were converted from mistaken violators and 
resisters of the law to peaceful and permanent and 
valuable citizens. 

' ' Blessed are the peacemaker's. ' ' 

"There was a little city and few men within it: and there 
came a great king against it, and besieged it, and built great 
bulwarks against it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man, 
and he by his wisdom delivered the city; yet no man remem- 
bered that same poor man." — Ecc. ix, 14, 15. 



J 6 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey 



XVII 

We return to Wayne County. With the county 
seat restored to Bethany and established there, a 
healthful prosperity and rapid growth was secured 
to that young village which was springing up in the 
midst of the woods. 

There was also a rapid influx of settlers to pur- 
chase farms and clear up the surrounding country. 

Writing to his father, from Bethany, in March, 
1805, Jason says: 

"The place is thronged with people seeking situa- 
tions for settlement, and I conceive the place has a 
preference, when considered under all its advantages, 
to any of which I have knowledge." 

So much has been said in these pages about the 
opening of Bethany, because it has seemed the only 
way of producing this part of Mr. Torrey's biography. 
His life was quite identified, for the time, with that 
of the starting village. Its quickened prosperity 
brought prosperity and success to him. His prop- 
erty there becomes valuable and available. The 
agency for nearly all the land-holders gradually 
comes into his hands, so that he has a paying and 
permanent and congenial business. The money that 
he advanced to the new county, three years ago, is 
refunded to him. 

Intelligent and enterprising people make their 
homes there and society comes into existence, and 
religious meetings are held — often in his house, and 
a school is started as a private enterprise by him and 
Esquire Bunting. 



First Post Office at Bethany. yy 

January 13, 1807, he writes: "Several persons 
have recently made a public profession of religion 
here, and next Sunday (18th) the Lord's Supper is 
to be administered for the first time in Bethany. The 
services are to be at my house." 

About the first of June, 181 1, a Post-office was 
first established at Bethany (Solomon Moore, P. M.), 
and they rejoiced in the luxury of a weekly mail, 
coming from Wilkes-Barre, by way of Mt. Pleasant 
to Bethany and Milford, and returning through Pau- 
pack settlement and Cobb's Gap. 

This was quite luxurious, and something like 
civilization, for only a few years ago the nearest Post- 
office for them at Mt: Pleasant was as far off as 
Bethlehem, and for a long time the friends at Wil- 
liamstown were directed to send letters addressed to 
" Beech Woods, Northamton County, Pa., to remain 
at Wilkes-Barre till called for." 

In October, 1808, Mr. Torrey entered into mer- 
cantile partnership with the above mentioned Solomon 
Moore, a young man of excellent business qualifica- 
tions and very accurate business habits, which par- 
tnership continued until March, 18 14, and Mr. 
Moore's youngest daughter is now for 30 years 
or more the wife of Mr. Torrey's oldest grandson, E. 
W. Weston, of Scranton. 

During the first 10 years of the residence of the 
family in Bethany (from 1802 to 181 2) six children 
were born into the household — two daughters and 
four sons, as follows: 

Minerva, born September 19, 1804. 
Maria, born January 1, 1806. 



78 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey, 

John, born April 13, 1807. 
Stephen, born November 9, 1808. 
Asa, born October 13, 18 10. 
Charles, born July 17, 181 2. 

In 181 1, the first death occurred in the family. 
The third child, Nathaniel, born at Mt. Pleasant, 
November 16, 1800, died August 20, 181 1, not quite 
1 1 years old. His disease was a " billious fever ac- 
companied by nervous affections that were exceed- 
ingly baffling to medicines." 

No information is furnished us concerning any 
characteristics of the boy, but he had reached an in- 
teresting age and the parting with him was a new 
experience to these parents, whose life was so busy, 
and to this group of six brothers and sisters, who 
were old enough to know that there was a vacancy 
at the table and in the sleeping rooms, and one voice 
silenced from their plays. 

Five days after this death, there goes a deeply 
tender and thoughtful letter to the entire family at 
Williamstown, expressing this, among other thoughts, 
that the event ought to produce "a religious sensi- 
bility, far surpassing that which proceeds from the 
personal or parental disappointment of our expecta- 
tions and prospects for a promising, son." 

Almost precisely two years later — July 25, 1813, 
a larger and sadder vacancy was occasioned by the 
departure of the wife and mother. 

This was occasioned by a violent form of an 
epidemic fever, running through full 20 days. 

As the end drew near, her tranquility and clear- 
ness of mind were quite remarkable, as shown in the 



Religious Impressions, 79 

counsels and consolations she gave, severally, to 
husband and children and some neighbors who were 
present. A parting interview with the husband alone 
continued for more than an hour. 

Another full and tender letter goes to the family 
at Williamstown, August 2, 18 13, revealing a very 
high estimation of the excellence and worth of the 
departed wife and mother, and deep grief for the loss 
that had befallen himself and the children. 

The religious impressions made upon him were 
very profound and effective. 

Near the beginning of his letter he says : 

"My heart is too full for details. I beg your 
united prayers that this afflicting stroke of God's 
providence may be sanctified to my spiritual good 
and to the good of our family, and that neither I nor 
mine may ever again become forgetful of Him whose 
we are, and from whom we derive every blessing." 

This language has the more significance because 
his parents and brothers and sister, for whose intelli- 
gent piety he had the utmost respect, had been very 
faithful to him, and he had often asknowleclged to 
them his appreciation of the claims of personal re- 
ligion upon him and confessed to a strange and 
guilty neglect of-those claims. 

And so, further along, he says: "Although I can- 
not but bemoan my loss, in tears of sorrow and grief, 
for myself and for my little ones, yet I feel the justice 
of the stroke too sensibly to raise a murmur against 
the chastening hand," and then adds: "I have lain 
in a state of spiritual torper for years. It has been 
destructive of my enjoyment, even social and in 



80 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

domestic life, but more in those of the mind. I feel 
that less affliction than has been given would not have 
animated me, and if this does not, I believe more and 
greater will follow." 

"Great God! enable me to profit by the past and 
stay thy chastening hand." 



XVIII 

Major Torrey's youngest brother, Ephraim, was 
now living near him at Bethany. Ephraim's wife 
was a woman of the highest excellence of character 
and of superior intelligence and good sense, of whom 
Jason had said, in his journal, when she came to his 
house, as a bride, in October, 1806: "I have but 
just seen her, but quickly discover some of her 
mother's traits of activity." 

And now, in 181 3, this Aunt Eunice, as she came 
to be called by her numerous nephews and nieces, 
not only, but afterwards, as an aged widow was 
affectionately so called by everybody in and about 
Bethany, until she died in 1870 — this Aunt Eunice, 
of sweet and blessed memory, bravely and kindly, 
with the consent and co-operation of her husband, 
came with him and her children into brother Jason's 
house and assumed the care of that large family of 
children, made still larger by the addition of her 
own. 

Hardly could Jason's children have been better 
provided for during those needy years. For among 
the excellences of Aunt Eunice's genial character, 



Increasing Land Agency. 8 1 

none perhaps was more marked than the facility with 
which she could secure the respect and affection of 
the young, and the effectiveness with which she could 
stimulate their minds and instruct and influence 
them. 

Very thankful was brother Jason to have his 
motherless children in such hands, as well he might 
be, because his enlarging business was, if possible, 

more exacting upon him than ever before. 

* 

He had hoped with returning prosperity to have 

more of leisure. But at no time was he more driven 
and pressed, at home and away from home, than 
now. Large areas of unsettled lands, covering much 
of what is now Wayne and Pike Counties, and ex- 
tending into Luzerne and Susquehanna, had been 
placed in his care. 

This was partly the fruit of seed sown during those 
discouraging periods at Philadelphia. He was at 
that time much in personal contact with the large 
land-owners and served them in their offices, and 
they not only became acquainted with the remarka- 
ble versatility of his business capabilities, and accu- 
racy and thoroughness of his business habits, but 
they acquired an almost unlimited confidence in his 
personal integrity. His name was a guarantee for the 
thoroughest uprightness. This confidence was con- 
firmed by their subsequent experience of him, as he 
attended to various matters of business for them 
from his log house at Mt. Pleasant, and so, when the 
time was ripe for it, this extensive land-agency came 
spontaneously into his hands. And he never once 
disappointed that confidence, but, forty years after- 



82 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

ward, those men delighted to tell of the beautiful 
accuracy, and complete fidelity, even to the nicest 
degree of truthfulness and integrity, with which the 
extensive business, so long entrusted to him, had 
been transacted. 

Returning now from this digression to complete 
what was being said about the pressure of business 
that was upon Mr. Torrey at the time that his faithful 
wife was taken from him and the genial and helpful 
"Aunt Eunice" came into his house, it remains only 
to be stated that these vast areas of unsettled lands, 
of which he had the agency, had been surveyed only 
in large tracts, often of thousands of acres, and must 
be divided into smaller lots, say of ioo acres each, 
more or less, and this work kept him in the woods 
during almost the whole of several Summers and 
Autumns — especially the Autumns, after the leaves 
were off the trees, which was the best time in the 
year for surveying, until the snows of Winter drove 
him in. So long were these campaigns in the woods, 
that he was sometimes for an entire month without 
seeing a human dwelling, except as he would some- 
times get a distant view of one from some high hill- 
top, which had been cleared of its standing trees by 
a whirlwind. Otherwise there were no views to be 
had even from the highest summits of the hills. 

And then, when driven in by the Winter storms, 
he was obliged to shut himself in his office, and make 
up for the short days by adding the long evenings, 
often until midnight or after, in order to make the 
calculations from his accumulated field notes, and con- 
struct the drafts and maps by which alone the work 



Vigor of his old Age. 83 

of the Summer and Autumn could be brought to 
completion. 

The violent contrast between the months of severe 
muscular activity in the woods, and those other 
months of close confinement in the office, was very 
trying to his physical constitution, and succeeded in 
making an old man of him by the time he was 50. 

Those who only knew him from that time (as was 
the case with the writer of this sketch) knew him as 
a somewhat decrepid old gentleman, with fire enough 
in his eye, and energy enough in his voice and ges- 
ture, but with a slow and infirm step, walking always 
slowly and with a cane, about the grounds of his 
home, but with his horse and carriage always at 
hand, and generally, through the day-time, standing 
at the door, ready for any greater distances. 

He compensated himself as best he could, for his 
physical infirmity, by the smartness of his horse. No 
safe and plodding old nag, to crawl around with him! 
The sturdiest and most spirited animal obtainable, 
and one that could trot up hill as well as down, and 
that had life enough to be gay on proper occasions, 
was the horse for him. And nobody must drive for 
him. I have known him, when he was over 70 years 
old and so infirm that it required two of his strong 
sons to help him down the steps of the house and 
into his carriage, which was quite open at the sides, 
in front of the seat — I have known him, when re- 
turning from a ride and letting himself slowly down 
by the side of the carriage, precisely between the 
wheels, and seeing the horse badly frightened by 
some passing object, to stand helpless and fearless 



84 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

between the wheels, holding himself up with one 
hand upon the waggon, and, instead of asking his 
attendants to help him or to hold the frightened 
horse, he would lift his strong cane high above the 
animal's back and speak to him with a voice that 
made it evident to the startled but sagacious crea- 
ture that no horse of his, whether frightened or not, 
could be allowed to stir an inch from his tracks with- 
out his permission. And, when he was sure that 
that impression was fully made, he would drop his 
cane to the ground, and, with a hearty laugh at the 
ludicrousness of the whole performance, grope slowly 
out from between the wheels. 



XIX 

Among the settlements outside of Wayne County, 
with which Mr. Torrey's business early brought him 
into acquaintance, was one in Susquehanna County 
known as "Nine Partners," for the reason that nine 
New England men came, with their families, as a 
colony, and purchased jointly, a large tract of land, 
situated in some branching valleys of little brooks, 
between some very sharp and high hills, in what is 
now the town of Harford in that county. 

They were puritans of the straightest kind — 
"orthodox," not only to the fullest extent of the 
Westminster catechism, but to the extent of Hop- 
kinsianism, so that one of the prima facie tests of 
Christian character among them, even up to 1820, 



The Tyler Family. 85 

consisted in a personal willingness to be lost if God 
could be glorified thereby. 

With their puritan faith there was a deep seated 
love for education, which soon bore fruit in the 
establishment of an uncommonly good school. 

Conspicuous among these nine partners was a 
Mr. John Tyler, whose wife was a daughter of the 
third Rev. Peter Thatcher, referred to on page 10. 

This John Tyler had four sons, the list of whose 
names has a sort of poppinjay sound, thus: John, 
Job, Joab and Jabez. Also five daughters, whose 
names were Mary, Mercy, Polly, Nanny and Achsah. 

They were a staunch family, and as those sons and 
daughters came to have sons and daughters of their 
own, they provided for them the best educational ad- 
vantages that could be had in the new country, and 
in the most substantial respects these amounted to 
much. A fondness for learning was inherited by 
their children. The only son of John, the eldest of 
the brothers, worked his way through college and 
became a brilliant professor at Cazenovia Seminary, 
N. Y., and while in that position he died at an early 
age, greatly lamented, and the faculty and students 
of the seminary erected what was, at that time, a fine 
marble monument over his grave in the beautiful 
cemetery of that village, and his high praise may 
now be translated from the latin inscriptions on that 
monument. 

The three sons of Joab, who were his only chil- 
dren, all worked their way through college, and the 
oldest, Prof. William S. Tyler, is now the Nestor of 



86 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

the faculty of Amhurst College, and one of the finest 
Greek scholars in the land. 

I say they "worked" their way through college 
because the most that their father could do for them 
was to spare them from the farms, and they were 
obliged to earn the money needed for getting their 
education, as best they could. 

The youngest of the five Tyler daughters, Achsah, 
became the wife of a young Presbyterian minister, 
Rev. Whiting Griswold, who was pastor of a church 
at Hartwick, Otsego County, N. Y., and died there, 
greatly lamented, after only a few years of ministry. 
Men who were connected with that church at the 
time, have delighted to speak, 40 years afterwards, 
with enthusiasm, of the excellence and usefulness of 
their Pastor's wife, and the special affection and ad- 
miration with which she was regarded by her hus- 
band's parishners. 

On becoming a widow she returned to her old home 
at Nine Partners, so as to be near her brothers and 
sisters, and resided in a snug little house of her own 
which constituted a home for her and her two chil- 
dren, a boy and a girl, then but a few years old. 

Meanwhile Mr. Torrey, as far back as when he 
lived at Mt. Pleasant was accustomed to go occa- 
sionally to Nine Partners on surveying business for 
the Tylers and others. These business visits brought 
him into acquaintance with Achsah Tyler before she 
was married to Mr. Griswold, and after the death of 
her husband and of his wife the acquaintance was 
renewed and resulted in their marriage, August 4, 
1816. 



Happy Second Marriage. 8 J 

This marriage was an exceedingly happy one for 
him. Hardly would it have been possible to bring a 
sweeter, nobler and better woman into his family. 
Writing to his parents just a year after this marriage, 
he makes this significant statement concerning his 
wife: 

"The affectionate ascendancy which she early 
gained and retains, to an eminent degree, over the 
children, is unusual, and I do not think that cases 
are frequent when the attatchment of children to a 
natural mother equals theirs to her." 

Her religious influence in the family seems to have 
been marked and fruitful — connecting itself with and 
adding itself to that of the excellent example and 
tender fidelity of the previous wife, the husband was 
lifted out of his long continued procrastination into 
a public and cordial profession of his Christian faith, 
and ever after, his attitude was clear and decided, 
and his activity in the church ceaseless. 

Very nearly at the same time five of the eldest six 
of his children, four sons and the daughter, Maria, 
became members of the same church. 

Asa fruit of this second happy marriage, there 
came two more sons into the family at Bethany — 
James, born September 9, 181 7, and David born 
November 13, 18 18. 

Of the Griswold children, Joab, the elder, left the 
family at Bethany during his minority and went to an 
apprenticeship at Harford, under the care of his 
uncle Joab, who was also his guardian, and at about 
the age of 30 went with his family to California 
where he became a member of the Legislature, and 



88 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

died a few years ago, a much-esteemed judge in the 
City of Stockton. 

The young Achsah Melissa was welcomed and be- 
loved as a sister in the family at Bethany, and was 
married to J. C. Gunn, of Utica, in 1835, ar >d soon 
after came with him to Honesdale, which has been 
their residence till now. 

This special connection with the Tylers at Nine 
Partners was of great value to Mr. Torrey also by 
bringing him into acquaintance with the excellent 
school that had sprung up there, and with the ad- 
vanced interest manifested in higher education there, 
to the influence of which he was, by his natural tastes 
and aspirations, very susceptable. The result was 
that during the decade and a half from 1818 to 1833 
all the sons and daughters, 10 in number, from Wil- 
liam to David, were, first and last, and sometimes as 
many as five at a time, in that school, not only profit- 
ing by its direct advantages, but enjoying also the 
almost equal benefit of the simple but beautiful cul- 
ture, intellectual and moral, literary and religious, of 
the various excellent families into which they were 
received, not merely as boarders, but as sons and 
daughters The intellectual and religious growth of 
most of them was greatly advanced by these opportu- 
nities and influences. One effect was to enlarge their 
minds and hearts to purposes of broad usefulness, so 
that Ephraim went as a teacher, and was more than a 
teacher, in his influence at Walton, Delaware County, 
N. Y , and there was awakened in Stephen an almost 
resistless impulse toward the Christian ministry, from 
which only failing health deterred him, and William 



General Financial Stringency. 89 

was led forth as a foreign missionary to the Spanish 
speaking people of Buenos Ayres in South America. 
He went to that country, under the auspices of the 
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, in 
November, 1826. 

He remained there twelve years, when a stop was 
put to his work by legal enactments making it a 
criminal offense to preach or teach in the Spanish 
language, which of course cut him off entirely from 
the work he intended to do. 

It is perhaps worth while to say one or two things 
just here, in a sort of parenthetic appendix to this 
chapter. 

1 The years about which we have found it so easy 
to write in these last pages, were years of great finan- 
cial stringency in the new settlements. Business was 
active and prosperous, but it had to be transacted 
mostly without money. On the 8th of August, 1825, 
Mr. Torrey writes thus to his brother, David, at 
Williamstown: 

"There is a general scarcity of money, which de- 
prives us of all chance of hiring it. I have for several 
years been in advance several thousand dollars to 
the largest landed interest in this county, from the 
settlers, on which I hold contracts, bonds and judg- 
ments to the amount of about $70,000, from all which 
I have not been able, with the aid of the sheriff, to 
collect even enough to meet the taxes and expendi- 
tures accruing from year to year without driving the 
settlers to absolute sacrifice of property." 

That is to say, as the agent of the large land 
owners in Philadelphia, he held, for them, obligations 



90 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

against the purchasing settlers to the amount of 
$70,000, and yet he could not collect even money 
enough to pay taxes, etc., let alone sending any 
money to Philadelphia. The settlers did not pay 
because they could not, and father advanced for the 
land owners several thousands of dollars to avoid the 
the necessity of subjecting the settlers to the sacri- 
fice of their property. How this stringency was re- 
lieved we shall see in the next chapter. 

2 The progress of the events narrated in these 
same last pages having carried us beyond the date of 
the birth of the narrator, it will accord better with his 
fillial feelings to use the word father hereafter in- 
stead of the name of Mr. Torrey. 

3 The reference above to the Harford school sug- 
gests some account of the origin of schools at Beth- 
any. In 1803, father and Esquire Bunting engaged 
a teacher on their own responsibility, requiring other 
parents to pay $2 per quarter for each child sent, 
and they making up whatever deficiency might oc- 
cur in the payment of the teacher's salary. In some 
such voluntary manner a school was maintained in a 
log school house, for a part of every year, till 1809, 
during which year a frame building was erected and 
paid for by subscription, and the school continued 
much as before. 

In 18 1 3, an act was passed by the Legislature in- 
corporating the "Beech Woods Academy," at Beth- 
any, and appropriating $1,000 on condition that the 
like sum should be raised by the people. But it was 
several years before the people availed themselves 
of this appropriation. 



Beech Woods Academy. 91 

Meanwhile, in 1814, brother William was attend- 
ing a classical school in Sharon, Conn., taught by a 
Mr. Daniel Parker, and father wrote to this Mr. 
Parker asking him to send them a good teacher, and 
agreeing that he and one or two others would be re- 
sponsible that the teacher's compensation should 
amount to, at least, a certain specified sum, leaving him 
the privilege of making as much beyond that specified 
sum, as he could. 

This resulted in the coming of young Amzi Fuller 
to teach in Bethany, who afterwards became one of 
the most valuable and conspicuous citizens of the 
county. 

In 1 8 16 action was taken for securing the erection 
of the "Beech Woods Academy," with the aid of the 
appropriation from the State, and the school lots 
which had been set apart for that object by the 
county trustees, and conveyed in trust to father and 
Judge Abisha Woodward and Isaac Dimmick, were 
by them transferred to the trustees of the Academy, 
and the walls of a brick building were erected to the 
height of the first story. But the building was not 
ready for occupancy till the Winter of 1820 and 
1 82 1, when our brother Ephraim was the first teacher 
in it, after recovering from a sickness incurred while 
teaching in Walton, Delaware County, N. Y. 

This was a substantial brick building, with rooms 
above and below for two grades of pupils, and was 
a creditable institution for many years. Amzi Ful- 
ler's brother, Thomas, taught in it about 1824, called 
there doubtless through the influence of his brother, 
who was very active with father and others in press- 



92 Memoir of Maj 07' Jason Torrey, 

ing the Academy to completion and keeping it in 
operation. Thomas Fuller also became an honored 
citizen and prominent lawyer in the county. 

About 1826, or 1827, when I was eight or nine 
years old, Mr. L. C. Judson, father of the famous 
"Ned Buntline," was principal of the Academy, and 
under his administration an incident occurred which 
illustrates at once the familiarity of the children with 
scripture history and the parental care which the 
prominent men took of the morals of the youth who 
were being educated there. 

The large "green" in front of the Academy, 
although it had a fine smooth turf, had never been 
plowed and its surface was very uneven because of 
the "cradle knolls " and the hollows between them, 
and after a copious rain, these hollows constituted 
little lakes of water, half-knee deep. One day at the 
noon recess, my friend Johnson Olmstead and I 
marshalled the hosts of Israel, consisting of about 30 
or 40 boys and girls, and I personated Moses and 
he Aaron. I smote the waters with a very simple 
rod and he led the army through one sea after 
another on anything but "dry ground," and this pro- 
cess was kept up with undampened enthusiasm till we 
were all called to the afternoon school. Of course 
everything else was dampened except our enthusi- 
asm. But we were all used to that kind of exposure 
and were no more disturbed about sitting in school 
with wet feet and ancles than would a company of 
Micronesian children be in the torrid zone. 

But a solemn time awaited us. Scarcely were we 
arranged in the school for our afternoon work, when 



Church Organizations at Bethany. 93 

there marched into the room the stately forms of 
Major Torrey and Deacon Olmstead — the fathers of 
the young Moses and Aaron. The teacher had 
quietly sent for them. The school was brought to 
a standstill and Johnson and I were arraigned for 
making sport of sacred things. We were innocent 
as babes of any bad intention and could honestly 
avow our sincere reverence for Moses and Aaron 
and the scriptures. But we had a long lecture from 
the teacher, endorsed and emphasized by our parents, 
and alter censure and warning, were allowed exemp- 
tion from further punishment, on the ground that we 
had only been guilty of thoughtlessness and not of 
any profane intentions. 

4 The earliest church organization in what is now 
Wayne County, was a Free-communion Baptist 
Church, of six members, that was organized at Stan- 
tonville on the 28th of June 1796. 

The settlement of Bethany began in the year 1 800. 
The place was visited from time to time by mission- 
aries and other ministers of various ecclesiastical 
denominations, and some of these visits were fruitful 
in religious awakenings, as was notably the case 
with a visit of Rev. Messrs. Thompson and Peck, 
Baptist clergymen, from Mt. Pleasant, during the 
Winter of 1805 and 1806, and after that time, when 
they had no preaching, meetings for prayer and 
reading sermons were regularly sustained. 

In January, 1808, father writes to Williamstown, 
saying: " We have Methodist preaching, regularly, 
once in two weeks," and in 18 10, a Methodist class 



94 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

was organized in the Drinker House, then occupied 
by Joseph Miller. 

"The Congregational Church of Salem and Palmyra 
had been organized in 1805, and in 181 2, the congre- 
gation of that church embraced also Canaan and 
Dybury, including Bethany. These four communi- 
ties united in 18 12 for the support of a pastor, and 
Rev. Worthington Wright (a missionary under the 
Connecticut Home Missionary Society) was engaged 
for three years, with the agreement that he should 
reside at Bethany, because considerably more than 
half his support came from there, and because also 
that was now by far the most important of the four 
communities. 

Rev. Phineas Camp, a missionary of the General 
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, labored for 
several months at Bethany in 181 8, and so fruitful 
was his work that quite a large number of persons 
desired an opportunity of connecting themselves 
with the Presbyterian Church by profession of their 
faith in Christ. 

Consequently a few days before the departure of 
Mr. Camp to some other field of missionary labor, 
viz.: on Tuesday, September 22d, 1818, a church was 
organized with 1 1 members, of which Achsah Torrey 
(wife of Jason) was one, and of which Dr. Virgil M. 
Dibol, practicing physician in Bethany, being another, 
was elected and ordained elder, and on the next Sun- 
day, 18 persons of whom father was one, made a 
public profession of their faith, making the church 
to consist of 29 members. This church and the 
charter society connected with it, had a strong and 



Delaware and Hudson Canal. 95 

healthful growth, so that it was able in 1823 and 
1824, to build for itself a house of worship which was 
a noticeably fine one for the time, and is still standing 
and in use, though robbed by decay, of the tall and 
handsome spire that once surmounted it. 

Of this society father was an active trustee so long 
as he remained in business, and of this church an 
elder from 1818 to the end of his life. 



XX 
The Delaware and Hudson Canal C ompany. 

The events of the last chapter bring us to the 
time when there dawned upon the inhabitants of 
Wayne County the knowledge of a new enterprise 
which was destined to influence very largely the de- 
velopment and prosperity of Northeastern Pennsyl- 
vania. 

Extensive deposits of anthracite coal were found 
to exist in the Lackawanna Valley — the nearest de- 
posits being about 17 miles from Bethany at the 
place where Carbondale now is. 

To get this coal to the New York market it seemed 
necessary to bring it over by rail from the Lacka- 
wanna Valley, the waters of which flow into the Sus- 
quehanna, to the Lackawaxen Valley, the waters of 
which flow into the Delaware. Between these two 
valleys lay the Moosic range of mountains. Between 
the Eastern edge of the Lackawanna coal deposits 
and the nearest waters of the Lackawaxen was a 



96 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

pass in the mountain range, known as Rix's Gap, 
where the altitude did not exceed 1,000 feet above 
either of the valleys. The coal brought by rail over 
this pass could be transported by water down the 
Lackawaxen to the Delaware, and then down the 
Delaware to a point from which a canal could be 
constructed up the Neversink, through Orange 
County, and then down the Rondout Creek to the 
Hudson. 

The magnitude and boldness of this enterprise, by 
which a canal was to be construced from the Hud- 
son River 110 miles into the wilderness, and comple- 
mented by a railway over the passes of the Moosic 
Mountain, seem the greater when we reflect that the 
coal for the transportation of which all was to be 
done, was almost entirely unknown beyond its im- 
mediate locality. 

Outside of Eastern Pennsylvania there were and 
are no large deposits of anthracite coal known in the 
world. It was entirely unused beyond the region 
where it lay, but these enterprising and sagacious 
men were so satisfied of its valu^ and usefulness 
that they put their hands to the gigantic endeavor 
of getting it to market for use. 

Very clear to us, therefore, will be the significance 
of the historic fact that in March 1823 the Legisla- 
ture of Pennsylvania passed an act authorizing 
Maurice Wurtz, of Philadelphia, to "Improve the 
navigation of the Lackawaxen." It would seem that, 
not a canal along the Lackawaxen, but the slack- 
water navigation of that stream, was contemplated 
at this time. 



Navigation of the Lackawaxen, 97 

In April of the same year, the Legislature of New 
York incorporated the Delaware and Hudson Canal 
Company and authorized them to construct a canal 
from the Delaware River, at the mouth of the Lack- 
awaxen, to the Hudson River — all within the State 
of New York. 

During the next year (1824) it became desirable 
that permission be obtained from the Legislature of 
Pennsylvania, for a transfer to the Canal Company, 
(with Mr. Wurtz's consent,) of the right to improve the 
navigation of the Lackawaxen and thus permit the 
company to extend its works into Pennsylvania. 

It was evident also that in order to secure this 
legislation in behalf of a New York corporation, 
there must be some influential advocacy of the 
measure on the part of citizens of that part of Penn- 
sylvania through which the new transportation route 
would extend. Father took a lively interest in this 
advocacy, as did also Messrs. Amzi Fuller and N. 
B. Eldred and Judge Abisha Woodward and others, 
father not only giving largely of his time, but con- 
tributing liberally to cover expenses of others seek- 
ing the same object. In April, 1825, the Legisla- 
ture passed the act authorizing the above mentioned 
transfer. 

Father also acted energetically and efficiently with 
the same gentlemen in securing additional legisla- 
tion in behalf of the Canal Company, as it was 
needed, in 1826. 

Viz.: In February, 1826, an act authorizing the 
Canal Company to construct a canal instead of slack 
water navigation on the Lackawaxen. And in April 



98 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

of the same year an act authorizing the construction 
of a railroad from their coal mines to the canal ; 
provided such railroad shall not extend further from 
their mines than to the "Forks of the Dyberry on the 
West Branch of the Lackawaxen, or to the Belmont 
and Eastern Turnpike on the Wallenpaupack" — thus 
leaving the Company to choose between the two 
routes. 

After the passage of this last act it soon became 
evident that the route by Dyberry Forks would be 
preferred to that up the Wallenpaupack, and then 
for a while it was expected that Keen s Pond, near 
Waymart, would be the head of the canal. 

But the engineers and officers of the Company 
soon manifested a preference not to extend the canal 
further than Dyberry Forks, or, at furthest, to the 
level space of the Blandin farm, near where the Com- 
pany's "pockets" now are. 

In addition to the general interest which father, 
together with all other citizens, had taken in the con- 
struction of the canal and railroad, he now came to 
have a strong personal interest in the location of the 
Western Terminus of -the canal, because he provi- 
dentially owned a tract of land at Dyberry Forks 
which was one of the contemplated points of that 
location. 

I say providentially for special reason. 

Many years after these events of which I have 
been speaking, when the canal had been in opera- 
tion for a quarter of a century, father* said to me one 
day, that his industry and his eager business plans 
had provided for the sustainance of himself and his 



Schoonover Farm. 99 

family and had enabled him to do something for the 
public, but had brought no accumulations of wealth 
to him. In so far as he had these they had come to 
him from unexpected sources. 

One illustration of this fact was found in what we 
have already noticed that the county seat at Bethany 
was located on lands that he had been enabled to 
secure for Mr. Drinker, in the midst of a then un- 
broken wilderness, and for his special services there- 
in, Mr. Drinker had conveyed to him 400 acres of 
land adjoining East of the county town, which he con- 
sidered as having come into his possession by no 
planning of his own. 

We now have occasion to speak of another illus- 
tration of the same fact. 

About the year 1800, a full quarter of a century 
before the canal was contemplated, Mr. William 
Schoonover had an improvement on the Dyberry 
Flats, about a mile above the "Forks," but had taken 
no steps to secure a title to it. Though his improve- 
ment gave him a first right to purchase not exceed- 
ing 400 acres, he was, by neglecting to avail himself 
of it, in danger of .losing much the greater part of 
that right, as warrants had already been issued to 
Mr. Nicholson, which largely interfered with that 
right. Father as a neighbor warned him of his 
danger, and assured him of his right to locate 400 
acres at the land office price, if he would attend to 
it. Mr. Schoonover could not readily raise the need- 
ful money, and knew nothing as to what action on 
his part would be necessary to secure the land. He, 
therefore, arranged with father to furnish the money 



ioo Memoir of Major yason Torrey. 

and have the necessary steps taken to secure the 
title, and take for his compensation and risk, the 
part of the land which Mr. Schoonover did not need 
for his farm. 

Father undertook the business, with every step of 
which he was familiar, and secured the title, and re- 
ceived from Mr. Schoonover a deed for the South 
part of the tract which was then an unbroken forest. 

For twenty years father tried to make a sale of it 
to persons disposed to settle in the county, but was 
unable to induce any one to purchase it. He tried 
to induce Mr. Benjamin Jenkins to purchase and 
settle on it in 1817, but he preferred to locate where 
Prompton now is, at a greater price. 

So that the southern half of the Schoonover tract 
stuck to father's hands, in spite of all his efforts -to 
the contrary, until the canal was projected and then 
he was not so anxious to get rid of it, for, from 1825 
or 1826, there began to be a chance that the terminus 
of the canal would be there, and in fact the Northern 
half of the village of Honesdale is on that tract which 
father had obtained by a sort of accident, and re- 
tained by a sort of compulsion. 

This ownership affords sufficient reason for the 
fact that, in 1826, father was personally interested 
in the question, then undecided, whether the canal 
should terminate at Dyberry Fork's or at Keen's 
Pond. 

As was said above the officers of the Company 
were manifesting a preference for Dyberry Forks, 
and the degree of father's expectancy is indicated in 
a letter written to his brother as early as March of 



Beginnings at Honesdale. 101 

that year, only a month after the act authorizing the 
canal along the Lackawaxen was passed, in which he 
says: 

"If we shall not be disappointed respecting the 
canal, as relates to this coming season, I must make 
improvements at the Forks." 

In order to bring on a decision in favor of Dyberry 
Forks, he proposed to the Company that if the head 
of the canal should be located on his land, at that 
place, he would give to the Company a half interest 
in the entire village plot which would be located 
there. 

Without receiving any acceptance of his proposal, 
he so far expected its early acceptance, and it was 
so generally understood that the head of the canal 
would be on his land, that he arranged that very 
season to have land immediately cleared for part of 
a village plot and built a boarding house with a room 
for the engineers of the Canal Company. 

Still the question of the precise location of the 
head of the canal remained unsettled through the 
next Winter, for, on February 10, 1827. Father 
writes thus to his brother David : 

"We must expect a scarcity of money here until 
the location of our canal shall be fixed. We have 
long been expecting it and now expect it for next 
Spring. It is located within 15 miles, and made 
within about 40 miles. 

I. e.: At the opening of the Spring of 1827, the 
canal was actually made or nearly completed as far as 
Port Jervis, and its location definitely fixed as far as 



102 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

the Narrows of the Lackawaxen (now Kimball's) 
and no further. 

At the opening of the next season (1827) gangs 
of men were employed and set to work at Dyberry 
Forks, so that chopping and^ burning and logging 
were the order of the day, and before the end of 
Summer of that year, the location of the head of the 
canal at that place had been authoritively determined 
upon, for, in August, after the ground of the flat 
space North of the West Branch was so much 
cleared that it could be seen, Mr. Bolton, the pres- 
ident of the Company, spent a few days there, and 
on the 13th day of that month, a formal contract was 
executed by father on his own behalf, and by Mr. 
Bolton on behalf of the D. & H. C. Co., of which he 
was president, whereby it was stipulated that the 
head of the canal should be located on father's prop- 
erty, and that the Canal Company should be equally 
interested with father, in the village plot which should 
be located there, and Mr. Bolton engaged that on 
reaching New York he would have a copy of the 
contract, with the Company's corporate seal affixed, 
sent to father. Before Mr. Bolton left he and father 
made a plan for the village. 

Up to this time father's co-operation with the offi- 
cers and agents of the Company in promoting its 
interests had been very active and intimate, and that 
the value of his co-operation was cordially appre- 
ciated and estimated in a most friendly spirit is 
abundantly shown in the voluminous correspondence 
between him and President Bolton and others at the 
time. 



Canal-Terminus Fixed. 103 

But in September of the same year the contract, 
only a month old, was laid before the board of direc- 
tors of the Company and they declined to approve it. 

At the same time they decided to locate the head 
of the canal on -a tract of land adjoining, South of 
father's, which Mr. Wurtz had recently purchased, 
and which he subsequently conveyed to the Canal 
Company. 

The fact of the quiet repudiation of such a contract 
would very naturally cause that the co-operation be- 
tween him and the company's agents should be less 
intimate and active than before. And the result was 
that father and the Canal Company each had a vil- 
lage plot in Honesdale, and each part of the town 
has had an honorable and prosperous history. 

The boundary between father's land and that of 
the Company as arranged by them, is a line running 
across the plain from East to West through the mid- 
dle of the court house square and precisely between 
the legs of the bronze statue on the soldiers' monu- 
ment there. 



XXI 

Settlement of Honesdale. 

So it remains true that Dyberry Forks was decided 
upon in the early Summer of 1827, as the place for 
the Western terminus of the canal and the Eastern 
terminus of the railroad, and the immediate estab- 
lishment of a large business and the springing up of 



104 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

a considerable town there, were, at once, assured 
things. 

Father, residing at Bethany, three miles away, ar- 
ranged for the vigorous continuance of the clearing 
of his land there, and the laying out of his part of the 
village. 

The above mentioned boarding house, which was 
built during the previous Autumn, was on the point 
of land between the West Branch and the Dyberry, 
within a hundred feet of each. A half-mile west 
from that point a dam was constructed across the 
West Branch and a saw mill erected and put in op- 
eration. 

I remember that one day that Summer, when I 
was eight years old, my father took me in his carriage 
from Bethany, in the morning, and we reached the 
spot where the boarding house stood, where we took 
dinner with the bronzed and hungry workmen. 

Before going home we got into the carriage and 
drove Westward along a narrow, rooty, muddy road, 
part of the way among the stumps, loose brush and 
fallen trees, and then through a thicket of lwh 
and crooked and tough rhoda-dendrons (large-leafed 
laurels) to the site of the aforesaid sawmill, I having 
to get out once or twice, on the way, to pull some 
troublesome laurel stick — as winding as a ram's horn 
and nearly as hard — from between the spokes of our 
wagon wheel. Such was the condition of things, 
just then, in the early Summer of 1827 — no house 
nearer than Mr. Schoonover's, 1 and no road West of 
Dyberry except the one I have just described. 



Rapid Growth of Honesdale. 105 

Soon, among the stumps and snags, the Forbes 
house (Wayne County Hotel) and the Foster house 
made their appearance as the first buildings of the 
place, and then the growth was rapid — not only the 
material but the moral and social advancement of 
the place was very rapid — strong men, in the vigor 
of their young manhood, and men of excellent char- 
acter, were brought there by the Canal Company 
and by the exigences of business, and the village 
sprang, almost at once, into a condition not only of 
healthful business prosperity, but of much social ele- 
vation and high-toned moral and religious strength. 

The quick-grown village early received the name 
of Honesdale, in honor of Philip Hone, of New York, 
Mr. Bolton's successor in the presidency of the Canal 
Company. 

In all this progress of the village, material, moral 
and social, father took a lively interest, though he 
could by no means have, directly and personally, so 
active a hand in the development of Honesdale as he 
had had in that of Bethany. 

He retained his residence at Bethany until several 
years after the death of my mother, who was seized 
away from us by a sudden sickness, in the very 
prime of her life, at the age of 49 years — though 
such was the matronly dignity of her manner and the 
style of her dress, especially in the wearing of caps 
with broad, flaring ruffles, that she always seemed 
an elderly lady to me. 

A few years after her death, his daughters having 
families of their own, and he, finding it difficult, after 
various experiments, to keep up his separate family 



106 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

at Bethany in a satisfactory way, was invited in 1835 
to find a home in the admirably ordered household 
of. his son John at Honesdale. 

Within two or three years after this, he was 
stricken with paralysis, and though he survived for 
several years, they were years of great physical in- 
firmity and much physical distress, but the soundness 
of his judgment and his capability of discriminating 
thought remained with him until he peacefully died, 
at the age of 76 years, on the day before Thanksgiv- 
ing, November 21, 1848. 

During the last few years of his life he made ap- 
propriations to objects of Christian benevolence 
amounting to about eleven thousand dollars. 



XXII 

I have been impatient for an opportunity, but have 
not found it until now, to take a closer and clearer 
view of father's religious attitude, and to attempt a 
somewhat analytical enquiry into the religious side 
of his character. 

We have noticed that he did not connect himself 
with the Christian church until after his second mar- 
riage, when he was 46 years old. 

But there is abundant evidence that, from his 
youth, he was possessed of a deep and abiding relig- 
ious faith, and that this faith habitually influenced 
and controlled him in the direction of moral integrity 
and religious reverence. Even his diary, revealing 
as it does an almost ceaseless pressure of muscular 



His Religious Attitude. 107 

and mental toil — taxing his powers to their utmost, 
reveals also a constant recognition of the claims of 
personal religion — often by a spontaneous declara- 
tion of the supreme excellence of those claims and 
the transcendent value of religious things. 

He discloses what seems a truly Christian and most 
unaffected interest in the religious welfare of the 
community in which he dwells. If an Evangelical 
Christian minister came to Bethany, father's house 
was not only open for his personal entertainment, 
but for the holding of his public services, on Sunday 
or at any time in the week. And if there was mani- 
fest any special religious interest in the community, 
resulting in the conversion of his neighbors, he ex- 
presses the most sincere and delighted interest in it, 
and makes record of it, and writes to his parents 
about it with what seems a truly Christian gratitude 
and gladness. 

Never does a shadow of unbelief seem to cross 
his mind. Never is there a moment's rejection of 
any of the principles of Christian truth, or the slight- 
est exhibition of a spirit of antagonism to the demands 
of God's law or of his love as revealed in his word. 

On the contrary there is manifested an habitual 
spirit of humility, confessing his unworthiness and 
guilt for not conforming more perfectly to the claims 
of holiness, and for neglecting those outward observ- 
ances of religion which should be the appropriate 
fruit and expression of the inward faith to which he 
unfalteringly adheres. 



108 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

Indeed his language seems to me to be that, not 
of an unbeliever or rejector of religion, but of a truly 
religious person, who is a Christian but does not 
know it, because he is waiting for some better testi- 
mony of experience and some higher attainments of 
goodness, before he shall become a "professor of 
religion." 

His letters to his parents and brothers and sister 
are more full and clear to the same effect. He had 
the highest and most sincere respect for their piety, 
and blames himself for not being able to place him- 
self by their side, and is never for a moment impa- 
tient or restive under their faithful and persistent 
admonitions and counsels. 

Some of these letters are exceedingly interesting 
by the revelations they make of the depth and inten- 
sity of his religious life. One written to his parents, 
February 12, 181 2, is so comprehensive in respect 
to the time it covers, and furnishes so full a disclos- 
ure of both the ordinary and extraordinary workings 
of his mind in respect to religious things that when 
we have made somewhat copious extracts from it, we 
shall hardly need to look further. 

This letter was written from Bethany about a year 
after Nathaniel's death, and a year before that of his 
first wife, so that it was called forth by no special 
excitement or disturbance of his soul, but was the 
calm and deliberate fulfillment of a long-existing 
purpose to unfold to his parents the religious history 
and the present religious attitude of his mind. 



Letter to His Parents. 109 

Bethany, February 12, 18 12. 
"Honored Parents :" 

" The reflection has for a long time been painful 
to me that I have so entirely neglected answering 
the many affectionate and admonishing letters which 
I have received from you. And, although more 
than half a year has elapsed since I came to a de- 
termination to endeavor to unfold to you the state of 
my mind in relation to Divine things, I have neg- 
lected until this time, the fulfillment of a promise 
which I made to myself and, I believe, intimated to 
you." 

"Several times I have commenced writing and be- 
ing unwilling to communicate to you, as an item of 
my belief, anything concerning which I entertained 
the slightest doubt, I have as often laid my pen 
aside without concluding what I had begun." 

"I feel desirous of expressing to you, in some 
more impressive manner than I have in my power, 
how much I esteem the blessing of having been bred 
under the care and watchfulness of parents whose 
zeal and labors were constantly directed to a sup- 
pression of vice and an introduction of virtuous prin- 
ciples, accompanied by a reverence toward God as 
our creator and benefactor." 

"When 1 view myself as the only member of my 
father's family who has not made a profession of ex- 
perimental religion — as the only unfruitful branch of 
the tree — my feelings are such as I cannot describe. 
But as the leading object of this letter is to give you, 
as correctly as I am able, and as fully as the limits 
of a letter will admit, the state of my mind in respect 



1 1 o Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

to Divine things, it becomes necessary to waive sec- 
ondary subjects." 

"You were not unacquainted with my occasional 
exercises of mind when I was in the family — espec- 
ially about the time I commenced study in the Acad- 
emy. During that Winter season I felt a degree of 
terror upon my mind which I could not surmount. 
God appeared just and gracious, but to me terrible. 
My idea was that I ought to perform duties and I 
thought I endeavored to. I fancied that if I could 
lead such a life as I pictured to myself I should be 
converted, but to my continual sorrow, every attempt 
at meritorious duty left me lower in the pit. This 
prayer, by not being more fervent, was but mock- 
ing God, and that duty, from having a selfish motive 
was but the "sacrifice of fools." Still my impression 
was fixed that I must do to obtain spiritual life." 

"On a time in the course of that Winter, as I was 
riding homeward on a clear evening, with my mind 
intent on my condition, an impression, as of words 
without sound, bade me look about me and behold 
God in his works. By an instantaneous transition 
my whole mind changed from a view of terror in the 
majesty of Heaven to that of the most exquisit de- 
light. Heaven and all God's creation appeared to 
my mind unspeakably beautiful, and my idea of God 
himself expanded to a degree which filled my whole 
soul with amazement and adoration. All thoughts 
of terror in the idea of God were gone, and nothing 
but inimitable love, unspeakable beauty, unbounded 
mercy and infinite, invariable goodness, in all his 
works and ways, found place in my mind. This 



His Vivid Religious Impressions. 1 1 1 

theme, at the time exceedingly delightful, occupied 
my mind until I approached home, when that which 
would seem like a visit to another world, like an 
absorption in meditation which carried the mind be- 
yond visible things, seemed to terminate, and the 
reflection upon it afterwards was rather like a 
reflection upon a past visit, or a past conversation, 
or a past prospect. An impression was made upon 
my mind which lasted. I felt a disposition of devo- 
tion to that Holy God, but thought nothing whether 
I was personally under favor or condemnation. God 
ought to be glorified without taking into view the 
worm of the dust." 

**#*<< g ut m y v j ew f Q 0( \ was as of one 
God, and the idea of a Trinity staggered me when 
carried to the extent which I believed and still belive, 
it is generally carried. And, feeling myself under a 
necessity of believing that the generally received 
idea among Christians was correct, I was compelled 
to so far abandon my own as fixed a belief that all 
my ideas had been a delusion, and that Satan had, 
by that artifice, so completely defeated the begun 
work of conviction in my mind, that I was in danger 
of never being able to regain it. And yet those 
same ideas of infinite beauty in the character, and 
goodness in the providences of God, as one only God, 
were so rivited on my mind that I never could dis- 
miss them. When I strove to regain those ideas of 
terror, the lovely prospect intruded, and for a num- 
ber of years, when I could not avoid reflection or 
when I was disposed to meditation, much the same 
ideas possesed my mind. But my idea of their fal- 



1 1 2 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey, 

lacy, in so essential a point as that of the Trinity, 
made me wish many times that I could forget the 
subject, and I dared not exhibit the state of my mind 
to others." 

"Thus I lived until I had been settled about a year 
and a half in this country, generally speaking solici- 
tous to crowd those ideas which so enraptured my 
mind into forgetfulness and if possible to regain my 
former ones." 

"At that time I was pursuing a journey on horse- 
back which occupied a day or two in a wilderness 
and furnished an undisturbed opportunity for medi- 
tation. Those beauties of the character of God 
seemed to shine upon my mind and, in a measure 
absorbed in the subject, I pursued it, tracing the 
probability of a God in active works, through 
myriads of worlds and successions of worlds to fill 
up an eternity." 

"The objection of the Trinity obtruded and I 
wished to forget the sublime subject. I could not dis- 
believe the creed of all Christian people that there is 
one God and one Christ, the only son of God, and 
that all who are saved derived their salvation through 
the medium of his atonement. If many worlds had 
existed and would exist in the universe, exclusive of 
this little ball of earth, and if those worlds, as well 
as this, were and would be peopled with rational be- 
ings, subject, like us, to happiness and misery, a 
species of physical impossibility baffled my ideas, 
how the subject could be reconciled. I endeav- 
ored to reason but only darkened the subject — the 
one position was too strongly impressed upon my 



Adoring Views of God. 113 

mind to be eradicated and the other too strongly 
supported by scripture and universal belief to be 
doubted." 

" In this condition, after endeavoring to reconcile 
the ideas until 1 found myself in a labyrinth out of 
which I could find no passage, either by retreating or 
advancing, I yielded the attempt and in fervency of 
prayer to that God who appeared to me to be all 
love and goodness, entreated that my mind might be 
relieved from that distressing anxiety by some dis- 
play of the subject to my understanding which should 
reconcile the difficulty with which I was confounded. 
My mind became absorbed in reverie, and I traveled 
for a number of miles, so completely without notic- 
ing any snrrounding object, that when I cast my eyes 
around me, I knew not where I was or whither I was 
going." 

"During this time my mind ran upon a train of 
ideas beyond expression — all the difficulties in respect 
to the system vanished — all was clear to my mind as 
the sunshine at noonday, and for a short time I was 
as happy in contemplation as I believe my nature 
capable of being." 

"I then had, and upon every recollection of that 
hour, still have, a feeling similar to that of having 
heard an elucidation of the whole subject from some 
one communicating to me. The awful sensibility of 
my mind at that time surpasses description. In 
solemn, adoring silence, without occasion to suggest 
a further doubtful thought which wanted removal, 
with fixed attention, more delightful than language 
can paint, my mind was led, as it were, step by step, 



114 Memoir of Major fason Torrey. 

through the most enrapturing of all subjects, and 
after the conclusion, when I found myself alone, on 
horseback, surrounded by a maze of barren moun- 
tains, even thought cannot describe the emotions 
of my mind. Adoration, wonder, gratitude, thank- 
fulness and praise filled my soul." 

"The subject occupied my mind peculiarly for 
some days, but I feared to mention the thing even to 
my wife, lest instead of bolstering I should shake her 
belief. Occurrences afterward revived the view in 
such a manner that I could not resist its convincing 
effect, yet I passed over year after year and thought 
best not to mention it." 

"Though I cannot say I live without hope at times, 
which I do not indulge at other times, I have never, 
at any time, felt that unequivocal assurance of hope 
whence I could say, without doubting, that my heart 
was right with God." * * * I can say with 
all sincerity that I feel myself a monument of his 
mercy, in that I am still spared who have been fur- 
nished, as it were by special pains of his own, with 
such demonstrations of his love and goodness. 
* * * If my faithfulness in my duty was equal 
to the smallest comparative degree of his goodness 
to me, I think I have reason to believe I should en- 
joy the favor of his presence on my mind, but to my 
own confusion of face I must say, I live in neglect 
and forgetfulness of that adorable God who hath 
dealt bountifully towards me, and whose goodness 
ought, without any other motive, to draw every fac- 
ulty of my body and mind devoutly into his service." 



Practical Hindrances. 115 

"I have drawn my letter to unusual length, to 
which I could enlarge if prudence commended, but 
will only add that my endeavors shall be to answer 
any enquiries you may make for explanation of what 
I have written, candidly if I cannot satisfactorily, and 
with prayers to God for your welfare, to beg a con- 
tinued interest in yours." 

Your ever dutiful son, 

JASON TORREY. 

These voluminous extracts from a long and com- 
prehensive letter show that while father's life was 
essentially controlled, and his character moulded, 
from his youth up, under the ever present influence 
of the principles of the Christian religion, he was 
deterred from making a profession of his faith by 
both a practical and a speculative reason. 

The practical difficulty was that he wanted to be 
good before he should profess himself a Christian, 
and not attaining to any such goodness as satisfied 
him, he abstained from making a profession that he 
feared he might dishonor. This is an attitude that is 
often occupied for years, and even for a life-time, by 
men whose Christian characters are believed in by 
everybody but themselves. 

The speculative difficulty was a huge and stubborn 
one. It was the long-continued — sometimes passive, 
sometimes active protest of his soul's intelligence 
and his heart's deep feeling against that aspect 
of the "orthodoxy" of the time which represented 
God the Father as implacable and terrible, and in 
this respect different from God the Son. It was this 
phase of the doctrine of the Trinity that "staggered" 



1 1 6 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

him. He believed this view of the terribleness of 
God the Father to be held by Christians generally, 
and among the rest by his father and mother and 
brothers and sister and wife, in the intelligent piety 
of each of whom he had unwaivering confidence, and 
he did not dare to disagree with them in regard to 
this phase of doctrine. But when he turned his 
thoughts toward God himself, he could see only in- 
finite goodness and loveliness in him, as on that 
Winter ride away back at the time when he was only 
19 years old. And this view of God wrought in 
him, at the time, a deep humility and a sweet trust- 
fulness. But there came back the thought of God's 
terribleness, as insisted upon by all Christians, and 
he sank into the discouraging feeling that those de- 
lightful views of God had been a device of Satan to 
destroy that "work of conviction" which had been 
begun in him, and which consisted essentially in that 
feeling" of "terror" which had left him, and which he 
was now afraid never would return. And it never 
did return as a "conviction." But he mistakenly 
thought it ought to, and he carried along with him 
the dormant elements of the struggle until, he says, 
he had been for a year and a half settled in Mt. 
Pleasant, when, on that journey of several days on 
horseback, alone, which was probably one of his 
horseback trips to Philadelphia by way of Minnisink 
and Stroudsburg, and very likely "the maze of bar- 
ren mountains" of which he speaks, were the moun- 
tainous shrub-oak barrens of what is now Pike 
County — on that journey, he became absorbed in 
thoughts of God, and God seemed sublimely good 



Divine Manifestations. 1 1 7 

and beautiful to him; but the other and "orthodox" 
thought that God ou^ht to seem terrible to him ob- 
truded itself, and he tried to push aside the delight- 
ful view, fearino- that it was a Satanic delusion aoain. 
But it would not be put aside, and thus the old 
struggle was fully in operation again within his agi- 
tated and anxious soul, which was seeking after God 
and could not decide whether or not he had found 
him, and then he prayed vehemently that his anxious 
and distressed mind might be relieved by some such 
disclosure of God to his understanding as would 
make the whole matter clear to him, and then he 
experienced in apparent answer to his prayer, what 
may properly be called it seems to me, a Theophany 
— i. e. a manifestation of God to his soul — like that to 
Isaiah in the Temple, or to Job when God spoke to 
him out of the whirlwind — only that, in those cases, 
the manifestations were, perhaps, miraculous in their 
manner, but in this case not at all miraculous, 
but natural spiritual, if I may be allowed the 
combination of words to express the compound 
thought. That is to say, by the legitimate and nor- 
mal operations of his mind and soul, with his intel- 
lectual and spiritual powers all awake and eager, 
under the combined light of God's works and God's 
word, he "saw the King in his beauty," and had such 
views of God's holiness and goodness as to clear 
away all his disturbances and fill him at once with a 
solemn awe and an adoring gladness, so that he quite 
forgot all his surroundings in the rapture of his joy, 
and was left with a feeling "like that of having had 
the whole subject of his anxious thoughts elucidated 



1 1 8 Memoir of Major fason Toi'rey. 

by some one communicating with him." This is the 
feeling that comes back to him at every remembrance 
of that hour, and though he has much difficulty with 
himself and especially reproaches himself because 
his life is so unworthy of a person who has had such 
sublime disclosures of God's character and such 
adorable views of God's goodness, as he has had, 
yet the old struggle is not again awakened in him, 
and in 1818, six years after writing the above letter 
— he finds his way clear, in close company with two 
of his sons, to take publicly the attitude of a Christian, 
without laying claim to any satisfying attainments of 
personal goodness, and from that time onward his 
doctrinal agreement with the Presbyterian Church 
was cordial and undisturbed. 



XXIII 

Intellectually father seems to me to have been 
richly endowed — capable of being master in logic or 
metaphysics, or of becoming distinguished, under 
favoring circumstances, in jurisprudence or states- 
manship. I have the feeling that if the land office at 
Philadelphia had been open instead of closed in 1 793 
to 1795, he would have been brought into such rela- 
tions to the life and leadership of the State, as might 
have opened to him the doors of a very wide and 
conspicuous career, and that almost any such career 
he would readily have qualified himself to fill with 
distinguished fidelity and ability. 

He was a quick and discriminating observer, with 
great readiness for broad and sagacious generaliza- 



Special Characteristics. 119 

tion, and an instinctive habit of reducing details to 
system. 

As a learner he had the philosophic method of 
searching for the causes of things, and was exhaus- 
tively thorough in the endeavor to master whatever 
he undertook to know. 

He was a strong thinker and a clear reasoner, with 
a rare felicity in the use of language, both in respect 
to the choice of words and to their construction into 
sentences, and with such power of abstraction and 
concentration that often, in the midst of the excite- 
ment and confusion of a popular meeting, he would 
be ready, at the critical moment, to sit down and, 
quick as thought, almost, produce the needed writ- 
ten document for presentation to the people, or to 
the court, or the Governor, or to the Legislature, as 
the case might require, that would be compact in 
form, and full and forcible in statement, and clear in 
argument, and sometimes as beautiful in expression 
as thouofh it had been conceived and elaborated in 
the utmost quiet and leisure. 

No matter how unimposing the subject with which 
he deals, he magnifies it, and magnifies his office by 
the masterly thoroughness and skill with which he 
deals with it, just as the painting of the head of a 
slaughtered sheep, hanging in a butcher's shop, re- 
veals the skill and power of the great artist and be- 
comes a picture that sells, perhaps, for a thousand 
dollars. 

The records of the church at Bethany, of which 
father was recording clerk for a series of years, are 
a monument to his clearness of perception and ex- 



120 Memoir of Major y a son Torrey. 

actness of statement. Those records involved no 
matters of vast public interest or imposing magni- 
tude, of course, but they cover some years of fierce 
and bitter ecclesiastical litigation, involving pro- 
longed and tedious trials of the most intricate and 
perplexing issues, and the concise and orderly and 
lucid and accurate records of all the processes and 
results of the business, reveal a power of compre- 
hending and expressing intricacies of thought and 
speech that was equal to the highest achievements 
in that line, and have commanded the admiration of 
experts who have had occasion to examine them. 

A few years before father's death, when I was at 
home from college for a Summer vacation, Mr. Amzi 
Fuller, then of Wilkes-Barre (previously of Bethany) 
was visiting, for a day or two, at the house of brother 
John in Honesdale, which house was both father's 
home and mine. 

Mr. Fuller was visiting his sister, brother John's 
wife, and was very intimate in the family. He had 
come to Bethany, very early in its history, as a 
teacher, and had begun his professional career as a 
lawyer there, and had continued it there until the 
county offices were removed to Honesdale, when he 
removed his residence to Wilkes-Barre, much to the 
delight of the people of the latter place, because he 
was a man of rare excellence and elevation of char- 
acter, and had become one of the strong men and 
able lawyers of the State. 

Mr. Fuller and I had stepped out from the break- 
fast table, or from morning prayers which always 
followed breakfast in that family, and were convers- 



Amzi Fuller s Estimate of him. 1 2 1 

ing together in the yard, and I regarded it as a spec- 
ial favor to have these few minutes of personal con- 
versation with him. 

While we were thus standing, father came slowly 
down the steps of the house, and leaning on his staff, 
tottered away from us across the yard. 

After he had passed, Mr. Fuller, following him 
with a look of mingled sorrow and affection, said to 
me, "Ah David! I fear your father will not be long 
with us." "The young may die but the old must 
die." 

It was a subsequent remark of his that I designed 
to call attention to here, as bearing upon the subject 
of this chapter, but I have given this by the way, 
though it may seem irrelevant, because it was sadly 
impressed upon my memory afterwards by the fact 
that this same Mr. Fuller and his younger brother, 
Thomas, who was also a distinguished lawyer in the 
county, and both in the very prime and vigor of their 
lives — the fact that both died of some acute disease, 
while the tottering "old" man still lingered after 
them, and made us all wonder that the "may" had 
so outrun the "musty 

After quoting that maxim, with his eyes fixed on 
father, Mr. Fuller turned to me and said, "I wish, 
David, you could have known your father in his 
prime. He was a man of wonderful intellectual 
force. This whole region of country felt the influ- 
ence of his energy of mind and will, and in respect 
to acquaintance with the laws concerning land titles 
and the ownership and control of real estate, he was 
hardly surpassed by any lawyer in the State." 



1 2 2 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

How clear and positive his ideas were on sub- 
jects of national and international interest, how vig- 
orous the grasp of his mind, and how capable 
he was of holding statesman-like views and writing a 
statesman-like expression of them, would be clearly 
shown by reference to his letters and voluminous 
papers. We can only notice some portions of a 
letter written to his father in 1805, in answer to re- 
peated requests for a statement of his views on the 
agitating political problems of the day. 

Let us bear in mind that it was less than 30 years 
after the signing of the Declaration of Independence 
and only about 10 years after the birth of the first 
French Republic, that from amid the crude begin- 
nings of things at Bethany, just after his graduation 
from the log house at Mt. Pleasant, and when he was 
about 30 years old, he wrote the following letter, 
and the youngness of our Republic at the time — a 
little younger than himself — will account for what 
might otherwise seem the triteness and common- 
placeness of his opinions and statements about 
" Government in the abstract." 

Bethany, March 20, 1805. 
"Honored FatJier .•" 

"In answer to a paragraph in your last and one in 
a previous letter, I wish for leisure and a private 
conveyance to communicate my sentiments on Gov- 
ernment in the abstract, as well as on the past and 
present administration of our own." 

"I believe that the form of Government which is 
best suited for one nation might be the worst for 



Thoughts on Government. 123 

another. The more depraved and licentious a peo- 
ple are, the more energetic should be their Govern- 
ment." 

"I believe that for a wise, prudent, honest and 
well-informed people, there can be no system of 
Government so well calculated to promote their hap- 
piness as a Representative Republican Government, 
and I believe a people may be so grossly destitute 
of virtue and honesty that a Republican Government 
is the worst they can have." 

"I believe likewise that an honest and well-in- 
formed people, under the best constructed Repub- 
lican Government which ever existed, are in iminent 
danger of losing their attachment to honest princi- 
ples unless there is energy attached to the adminis- 
tration, and that a Republican Government in an 
honest and virtuous nation, if administered with 
cupidity, is in danger of becoming their greatest 
curse, by introducing national immorality, national 
dishonesty and the destruction of all national confi- 
dence, both at home and abroad." 

" The lack of energy in an administration is nat- 
urally productive of insubordination to the Govern- 
ment, and this never can exist, from such a cause, 
without being accompanied by a greater or lesser 
degree of insubordination to every principle of vir- 
tue and honesty. Thus that system which, under a 
wise and energetic administration, would produce 
safety, happiness and growth in virtue at home and 
inspire respect abroad, by its imbecility courts licen- 
tiousness and banishes every virtue." 



124 Memoir of Major Jason Torrcy, 

"Without enlarging upon the principles of Gov- 
ernment in the abstract, I would particularly notice 
ours." 

"I presume no system of Government was ever 
devised by man, so well calculated to promote the 
happiness of a free and virtuous people as is defined 
in our Federal Constitution, nor do I believe there 
was ever a people so well calculated to be made per- 
manently happy and secure under a Republican 
Government as we were at the commencement of 
the Federal Administration, had we adhered rigidly 
to the principles of our own Government and let 
alone the political concerns of Europe." 

"The French Revolution, from a Monarchy to a 
Republic, was witnessed with too great pleasure by 
Americans — by means whereof our Government 
suffered partial depredations on our commerce by 
their sister Republic, without assuming that deter- 
mined opposition which would have at once pre- 
vented its continuance without giving any nation 
offense. We winked at those inroads upon us which 
produced a jealousy with the English. They, pro- 
fessedly and perhaps honestly, assumed that they 
would treat our flag as we permitted the French to 
treat it, and commenced their depredations." 

" Government soon found that to remain inactive 
was to give up our commerce, for a free plunder, to 
these contending nations, and at this moment of 
necessary activity, our political contest commenced." 

"The Democratic party wished immediate war 
with England for daring to treat us as we had per- 



Political Views. 125 

mitted the French to treat us, and the Federalists, 
too late sensible of their remissness, urged an amica- 
ble treaty." 

" Fortunately the power of deciding was with the 
Federalists, and a treaty upon terms more favorable 
to us than, at the time we had reason to expect, was 
the consequence — for ratifying which Washington 
was styled by the Democrats, "a fool," "a tool for 
British partisans," "a superanuated old man," and 
by some, who are now highly courted by our National 
Administration, "a scoundrel," and "a man who had 
never rendered his country a service from any better 
motive than his own pecuniary and popular advance- 
ment." 

"This language towards our National Govern- 
ment and towards the Father of our Independence 
and the nurse of our Liberties, unparalelled in the 
most licentious governments, sufficiently demon- 
strated the consequences of the preceeding remiss- 
ness, and the impolitic and extremely dangerous 
measure of suffering ourselves to feel so far attached 
to the political concerns of another nation as to lose 
sight of the interest and dignity of our own." 

"Government, by this time, found it necessary to 
assume a more decided attitude. An Alien law and 
a Sedition act were passed — acts at the time ex- 
tremely necessary, and which were only deficient by 
their limitations. But the track had been beaten for 
abusing Government with impunity, and whatever 
was not absolutely calculated to accommodate the 
French was denounced as aristocratic." 



126 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

"We now beheld a set of men, generally disap- 
pointed expectants of office and vagrant aliens, ex- 
erting their abilities to produce discontent and in- 
surrection. With them, to live under a law which 
made criminal the "falsely, scandalously and malic- 
iously" abusing the National Government, and 
especially the "speculator," Washington, was not to 
be endured. Of course resort must be had to the 
ignorant rabble, where everything that savored of 
distrust would be eagerly embraced." 

"By means of this resort our Government has be- 
come the Government of a faction and nothing 
more. What is our President? His election, in 
the first instance, was effected by the Virginia and 
Carolina negroes. This can be fairly demonstrated, 
that the additional electors in the Southern States, 
produced by their number of slaves, gave Jefferson 
and Burr a majority over Adams and Pinckney." 

"What is the adminstration of the President, 
elected by the Virginia negroes? It is what it ever 
was when a faction gained the power. Those persons 
who had been convicted and were imprisoned for 
libelling Washington, were pardoned and compli- 
mented with lucrative places. Fines were not only 
remitted but refunded after they had been paid pur- 
suant to sentence of court. Nothing in nature is 
more clear to me than this, that the same principle 
actuates the present ruling party in this country 
which has produced about a dozen revolutions in 
France, and that by brooding and nursing a few more 



Dr. Rowland's Estimate of hint. 127 

Tom. Paines, T.J. Calenders and Tom. Coopers,* etc., 
in connection with their piece-meal dissection of the 
body of the constitution and infringment upon its 
principal parts, it is not without good reason that 
they and we may expect or shortly witness its exit 
final." 

Your affectionate and dutiful son, 

JASON TORREY. 



XXIV 

Perhaps for a general and final estimate of father's 
character and worth, it is better not to trust to my 
own judgment, which would be almost of necessity 
biassed in the direction of eulogy, by my filial affec- 
tion and reverence, but to use rather the kindly and 
appreciative sentiments of Dr. Henry A. Rowland, 
as they were expressed at the time of father's fun- 
eral. 

Dr. Rowland was pastor of the church at Hones- 
dale, at the time of father's death, and had known him 
only during a few years of his infirm old age, but the 
following words of the funeral discourse were uttered 
in the presence of many men and women who had 
known father longer and better than the preacher 
had, and from whose private testimonies the mater- 



*Thomas Cooper, for a violent attack on Adams, was tried 
for libel and sentenced to six months imprisonment and $400 
fine. In 1806 he was Land Commissioner for Pennsylvania — 
was appointed judge and in 1811, was removed from office for 
arbitrary conduct. — Appletori 's Am. Cyclopedia. 



i 28 Memoir of Major Jason Torrcy. 

ial for these tributes, to one whose life work was 
very fresh in their memories, had been obtained. 

Dr. Rowland, said: "We have assembled to bury 
one of the oldest members of this community, and 
one whose early history is connected with the first 
settlement of this county." 

Then after a historical sketch in which many of the 
events, extending through a period of more than 60 
years, which have been more fully narrated in the 
preceeding chapters of this book, were condensed, 
the preacher concluded his discourse in the follow- 
ing words : 

"It will be seen from this brief sketch of his history 
that Mr. Tokrey was a man of uncommon energy of 
character, and of a determined fixedness of purpose. 
He had strength of mind and sagacity to search out 
and discover the path of his duty; and when he had 
once made up his mind as to the rectitude of a given 
course, it was as easy to move the hills from their 
bases as to divert him from it. This great and com- 
manding trait of his character, had it taken a wrong 
development, would have rendered him as eminent 
for a bad influence in society as he was for that 
which is good. Perhaps, in some instances it would 
have been better had it been modified to suit the 
circumstances of a difficult case ; but it was not the 
habit of his mind to temporize. He could not bring 
himself, for the sake of policy, to pursue a course 
which he felt to be even doubtful in point of recti- 
tude. His energy and decision were equal to any 
emergency, and as they were displayed in him, con- 
stituted a great character. They are the attributes 



Dr. Rowland's Estimate of him. 129 

of a powerful mind whose influence cannot but be 
felt in any department of life. Had he devoted him- 
self to a profession, been called into the councils of 
the nation, or the command of armies, these qualities 
would have borne him on to eminence. He would 
have made his influence felt; and it would have been 
such an influence as would tend in the highest degree 
to advance the true interests and happiness of man." 

"In addition to these eminent traits, he was pos- 
sessed of unbending integrity. Entrusted with the 
landed interests of a large proportion of this and 
other counties, constantly transacting business for 
others, and ever in the receipt and disbursement of 
the funds connected with an extensive land agency, 
his whole course of life was marked with that strict 
honesty which commends itself as worthy of all im- 
itation. It was a ruling passion with him to do jus- 
tice, even to the smallest estimable fraction ; and it 
was this sterling honesty which secured for him such 
unbounded confidence in the community where he 
dwelt." 

"Associated with this estimable trait, was his benev- 
olence. He loved mercy, and conferred it with a 
bountiful hand on every object of Christian benevo- 
lence within his reach. He loved especially the in- 
stitutions of religion, and those objects which give 
the gospel with its blessings to the poor and desti- 
tute who are far removed from its privileges. He 
was charitable in his feelings towards all who bear 
the Christian name. Though firm in his adherence 
to the sentiments of his own church, yet he could 
look with interest on the advancement of religion in 



1 30 Memoir of Major Jason Torrey. 

any other communion, and did not hesitate to confer 
his aid, when solicited, on the various evangelical 
churches. "It is pleasant," said he, on one occasion, 
"to see the various branches of Christ's church pro- 
viding themselves with houses of worship, for it 
makes the strangers who come among us feel more 
at home when they can associate with their own peo- 
ple in the worship of God." It was the expression of 
a kind and charitable feeling, to which I listened with 
great pleasure as it fell from his lips." 

"And he endeavored to walk with God. Not that 
he was ready to communicate his feelings, as some 
are, but he aimed to act the part of a Christian in all 
the relations of life, humbly relying on Jesus Christ 
by faith, as the only ground of his hope. And often, 
in view of death, which he has for years seen creep- 
ing on apace, has he expressed a perfect resignation, 
and an entire readiness to go when God should sum- 
mon him. I do not think but that he was as ready, 
at any time, to cross the dark river, as he ever was 
to get in his carriage and take his accustomed ride 
to Bethany." 

"He loved the church of Christ in this place, and 
earnestly desired its permanency and prosperity; 
and just so long as he was able did he come and take 
his accustomed seat in this sanctuary, long after he 
could by reason of an infirmity in hearing, derive any 
profit from the gospel preached. He came from 
principle, and that his example might do others good, 
in this, as in every other duty, finding his reward in 
the consciousness of the Divine approbation." 



Dr. Rowland's Estimate of him. 131 

"And now, my friends, we have come to bear him 
from this once loved spot to the place appointed for 
all the living, may his example be long remembered 
in this church, and the marked excellencies of his 
character imitated ; and may we so live, under the 
guidance of religious principle, as to reach in safety, 
at last, our journey's end. And when we come to 
die, may our faith be so assured, and our hope so 
bright, that we shall feel as he did, when we lay our- 
selves down to rest at night, that it is a matter of 
indifference to us whether we wake in this world or 
the next. "And we desire that every one of you do 
show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope 
unto the end; that ye be not slothful, but followers 
of them who through faith and patience inherit the 
promises." 

[On page 13 of this book, John Torrey, LL. D., the dis- 
tinguished botanist and scientist is spoken of as though he was 
still connected with the Government Assay office in the city of 
New York, while the less welcome truth is that he died in 1873, 
greatly honored as a man of sterling Christian character, and of 
very eminent scientific attainments and achievements, and his 
son, Herbert Torrey, succeeds to his position in the Assay office.] 



l)£ 



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